Students attending Kanye West’s Donda Academy eat sushi every day in a lunchroom without tables, chairs, or even utensils. The building also lacks any janitorial staff or school nurses, and teachers have no framework for lessons or disciplining their pupils, according to a lawsuit that paints a bizarre picture of the Christian private school.
Two former teachers at the pre-K through 12th grade institution in Simi Valley, California, previously tried raising concerns over what they say are clear violations of Department of Education requirements. But they say they were promptly and unjustly fired from their new jobs. Now, they’re suing the disgraced rapper and several others in leadership roles at the school for racial discrimination and labor violations.
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Cecilia Hailey, an educator for 25 years, and her daughter Chekarey Byers, who is also a teacher, worked as the only Black full-time teachers at Donda Academy for just two months before being let go on March 3, according to the suit which was provided to VICE News by their attorney. They were paid irregularly, and paychecks were oftentimes short by up to $2,700 per pay period.
Their lawsuit also alleges numerous health and safety code violations, which the school’s leadership did nothing to address. Instead, Hailey and Byers were called “aggressive” by the school’s principal for trying to offer insight into what the school needs.
“I’m just tired of the rhetoric being that Black women who are competent are seen as aggressive,” Hailey said in a statement provided by her attorney.
“I’m extremely sad about all of this,” Byers said. “I’ll never deny his [West’s] talent, but while his vision for the school sounds great on paper, it’s just pure chaos and mutiny. It’s like a mental hospital being run by the patients.”
Some of the most egregious issues, according to the lawsuit, stem from the school’s frivolous safety measures. Teachers aren’t provided or required to learn basic life support training like CPR, and there are no school nurses on hand or protocols for handling the medical needs of the kids, according to the lawsuit. The school also has no janitorial services. It instead provides teachers with microfiber cloths with acid water for cleaning.
As for the material taught to students, the lawsuit says the school was not following California’s regulations on testing or individualized lesson plans. And there was no system for disciplining kids, which allowed for bullying of students and teachers to go unaddressed, according to the suit. One eighth grader with a continued history of bullying others, for example, slapped a classmate and tried to do the same to a teacher, accoording to the lawsuit. Nothing was done by the institution to reprimand them.
“There are several students with bullying issues that remain unaddressed,” the lawsuit reads.
Ye, who named the school after his late mother Donda West, a former English chair at Chicago State University, has long been quiet about the private school he founded last year. But after making false statements about George Floyd’s murder and going on several vitriolic rants against the Jewish community—one in which he praised Hitler—the school once shrouded in secrecy began to show cracks. It was briefly shut down last October after his infamous, antisemitic interview on the Drink Champs podcast before parents were told it would remain open less than a day later.
Meanwhile, parents and staff, sick of Ye’s public antics, began to leave the school in droves.
Hailey and Byer’s lawsuit offers a glimpse into what it’s like to attend the school.
Students aren’t allowed to bring any outside food or drinks with the exception of water for lunch, according to the lawsuit. They were instead provided sushi, paid for daily by Ye himself, which was eaten in a furniture-less lunchroom without forks.
Wall art is banned from classrooms, as are traditional chairs, according to the lawsuit. Students instead are expected to stand for the entirety of their lessons or use foam cushions, and teachers are given stools to sit on. Trash cans were limited to the kitchen and classrooms. And for some reason, coloring sheets and crossword puzzles were banned, and all classrooms had to be held on the first floor.
“Classes could not take place on the second floor as Defendant West reportedly did not want children or staff to go upstairs since he was reportedly afraid of stairs,” the lawsuit claims.
“Kanye West is clearly as bad at running a school as he is at managing his own personal and professional life,” Hailey and Byer’s attorney Ron Zambrano said. “These egregious violations at Donda Academy are just another example of West’s unusual behavior, and our clients just won’t stand for it, no matter his celebrity status.”
The Grammy Award-winning artist and fashion mogul’s stardom has faltered tremendously since late last year. He’s lost lucrative deals with Adidas, Balenciaga, Gap, and JP Morgan Chase. His false, racist hot takes cost him $1.5 billion.
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