A new lawsuit filed against Kanye West’s Donda Academy has claimed that his private Christian school allegedly left windows and skylights empty because the rapper “didn’t like glass”.
In a lawsuit filed on Thursday (6 July) in Los Angeles, an ex-assistant principal and official at Donda Academy and the former Yeezy Christian Academy claimed that he was fired after he raised concerns about both schools’ health and safety standards.
Isaiah Meadows began working as a full-time employee at Yeezy Christian Academy in late 2020, before becoming a teacher’s assistant at Donda Academy in 2021. In the suit, the plaintiff alleged that students were left “exposed to the elements” because West – who legally changed his name to Ye – refused to allow glass to be placed in the building’s windows.
“In the middle of the main classroom, a skylight was left without glass inevitably allowing rain to fall directly inside, where water would soak into the floor, which would lead to a moldy smell for the next few days,” Meadows’ lawyers alleged, according to Billboard. “The skylight was intentionally without glass because West expressed that he did not like glass.”
Though “mesh curtains” were eventually added, he went on to claim that the school had “serious wiring issues,” including one alleged incident where “an electrical fire started near the student eating area”.
Meadows also claimed that Donda Academy appeared to have plumbing problems, specifically that the school’s “septic tank often overflowed”.
After he issued complaints about both Donda Academy and Yeezy Christian Academy’s alleged health and safety hazards, Meadows claimed he was suspended, had his pay docked, and was eventually fired from his position in August 2022.
“Plaintiff Meadows is informed and believes he was terminated by Defendants as a result of him bringing up concerns about school operations and about wage violations,” his lawyers claimed.
The new lawsuit comes just three months after two former employees sued Ye and Donda Academy for wrongful termination. In April, Cecilia Hailey and her daughter Chekarey Byers claimed they experienced racial discrimination and had wages illegally held from them after they had complained about the school’s alleged health, safety, and educational violations.
Much like the claims made by Meadows in the new court filing, both Hailey and Byers alleged that students were allowed to only eat sushi; that Ye required students to wear black; that he didn’t want children using forks or utensils; and he even prohibited classes from taking place on the second floor because he was “afraid of stairs”.
While Hailey and Byers were seeking $1m in damages, the new complaint said Meadows is seeking an unspecified amount of damages for unpaid wages, loss of earnings, and emotional distress.
“It is just absolutely egregious what is going on at this school,” Ron Zambrano, the lawyer representing plaintiffs in both lawsuits, said in a statement to NBC News. “The unlawful and retaliatory behaviour by Mr West and the school directors have now been documented multiple times by other former employees who never even worked together but all experienced the same horrendous treatment and witnessed the same serious health, safety and education code violations, while all were subjected to the same fate – wrongful termination – and we plan to hold them accountable.”
According to the outlet, lawyers for Donda Academy have previously described the accusations made by the former teachers as “fatally uncertain, ambiguous, and unintelligible”.
Ye’s attorney, Gregory Suhr, has also maintained that depictions of Donda Academy as a “dystopian institution designed to satisfy Ye’s idiosyncrasies” are a false representation of the private Christian school.
“None of it is true and the allegations do a disservice to the Donda Academy’s current staff and students and their parents who will attest to their positive experience,” Suhr reportedly said in a filing last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The “Bound 2” rapper first founded Yeezy Christian Academy in 2020, which later transitioned to Donda Academy – a tuition-based, Christianity-rooted preparatory school located in Simi Valley, California – in 2022.
However, following a string of controversies and antisemitic remarks, Ye’s unaccredited K-8 school announced that it would be closing in October last year. School officials said they planned to reopen in September 2023.
The Independent has contacted representatives for Kanye West for comment.
