Students at Donda Academy, the California-based private school launched by Kanye West, weren’t allowed to sit in chairs and only had one lunch option—sushi—according to a new lawsuit filed by two former teachers at the school. The teachers separately claimed that the Holocaust was omitted from the school's history classes.
Cecilia Hailey and Chekarey Byers, the only two Black female teachers at the academy, say they were fired after expressing concerns about conditions at the school to administrators, according to a copy of their complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, reviewed by Fortune. They’re suing West and three academy directors for wrongful termination, discrimination retaliation and wages they say were withheld.
An attorney for West did not reply to Fortune’s request for comment.
The former teachers said Donda Academy hardly operated like a real school, and made a series of claims about the bizarre practices followed there. It "did not have any janitorial services, it did not have a school nurse on staff or medical access, it was not following nutrition guidelines, and it did not have any security precautions," according to the complaint.
Further, they claim that West had forbidden proper trash cans as well as the use of cleaning products with chemicals. Teachers were instead only permitted to use “acid water and microfiber cloths” to clean their own classrooms.
Other unorthodox practices were followed, they say. The complaint states that teachers were not required to have any first-aid or child-abuse reporter training and ignored state regulations surrounding learning plans.
Students, who were required to dress entirely in black clothes designed by Ye ("Nike and Adidas brands were forbidden"), were restricted to the first floor, the complaint alleges, because West is reportedly afraid of stairs.
Besides only serving sushi to the students for lunch, the complaint says the school "did not allow children to use forks or utensils" and forced them to eat lunch on the floor, as there were no tables or chairs available. In fact, chairs were also absent in classrooms, forcing students to either stand or sit on foam cushions. (Teachers had the option of a stool or standing.) The complaint says crossword puzzles and coloring sheets were banned, teachers were not allowed to wear jewelry, and children were not allowed to go outside during the day.
The overall safety of students and staff was also allegedly not prioritized. The civil complaint claims that "students were allowed to be picked up from the school campus by strangers, as there
were no policies in place otherwise. Parents, children from other schools, and even random
strangers could come and go at will without ever having to sign-in or sign-out or notify anyone."
Students were "subject to severe bullying" and disciplinary action was rarely taken to keep them safe, according to the court filing.
Academically, the Holocaust was not part of the school’s curriculum, Hailey told the Los Angeles Times, saying the school “definitely wanted to suppress a lot of information in reference to history. They didn’t want the kids to know really about African American history or Asian American history.”
Hailey and Byers tried to flag these various issues multiple times, but they weren't listened to, the complaint says, and they were served termination papers in the school's parking lot last month with no further explanation. Their lawsuit claims that they were terminated in retaliation for their complaints about the "unlawful and unsafe educational practices," the complaint said.
Donda Academy, named after West’s late mother, was founded in 2022 and offers classes for pre-kindergarteners to 12th graders. Parents are required to sign a nondisclosure agreement, and annual tuition costs are estimated to be $15,000 per year.
