Contents
- The windows were empty because Ye doesn’t like glass.
- Sushi ‘every day’
- No outside food, no utensils, no tables.
- There were no classes on the second floor because Ye was ‘afraid of stairs’
- No chairs, no art allowed on the walls.
- No books, doors locked from outside, crossword puzzles prohibited
- Students and staff are required to wear Ye’s Yeezy clothing
- No ‘proper’ disciplinary system amid rampant bullying
- Ye don’t ‘believe’ in cleaning products
- Wires ‘sticking out’ and an electrical fire
Since April, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West has been hit with a barrage of unusual and troubling allegations about two Christian schools he founded in Southern California, Donda Academy and its predecessor, Yeezy Christian Academy.
The allegations, made by three former teachers and a former assistant principal, were included in two lawsuits filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, one for wrongful termination and discrimination and another for breach of contract.
In both cases, the plaintiffs claim they were fired after raising concerns about alleged code and conduct violations that their lawyer described earlier this week as “absolutely egregious.”
These are some of the strange rules and related claims described in the lawsuits.
The windows were empty because Ye doesn’t like glass.
Former assistant principal Isaiah Meadows alleged in a lawsuit filed Thursday that Donda Academy’s K-12 campus in Simi Valley had no glass in its windows after it opened in August 2021.
Mesh curtains were eventually hung on the building, the lawsuit says, but they did little to keep out the cold.
A skylight in an earlier iteration of the school, Yeezy Christian Academy, was also empty, Meadows claimed, “allowing rain to fall directly inside, where the water would soak into the floor, causing a musty smell for days to come.” . “
In both cases, Meadows said, the openings were left uncovered because Ye allegedly said he didn’t like glass.
Sushi ‘every day’
In a separate lawsuit filed in April, two former teachers said Donda offered only one menu item for lunch: sushi.
The teachers, Cecilia Hailey and Chekarey Byers, said that during the several months they worked at the academy — Hailey started last November and Byers was hired in January — Ye spent prodigiously on Japanese cooking.
“It was widely known that defendant WEST spends $10,000 a week on sushi,” the lawsuit alleges.
No outside food, no utensils, no tables.
The students were prohibited from bringing in food or drinks from outside, according to the lawsuit.
They could only bring water to the school, according to the lawsuit. Forks, utensils and dining room tables were banned, as were non-gray cups and bowls, the former teachers claimed.
There were no classes on the second floor because Ye was ‘afraid of stairs’
Classes on the second floor of Donda were banned, and students and staff were banned from climbing the stairs because Ye “allegedly was afraid of stairs,” according to the former teachers’ lawsuit.
No chairs, no art allowed on the walls.
No artwork was allowed on the classroom walls, according to the lawsuit, and chairs were banned, so students sat on foam cushions or stood while teachers used stools.
No books, doors locked from outside, crossword puzzles prohibited
The parents complained that the classroom of a third former teacher later added to the Byers and Hailey lawsuit, Timanii Meeks, had no books or textbooks, according to the lawsuit.
Crossword puzzles and coloring sheets were banned, the academy doors were locked from the outside during the school day, and students were not allowed to leave, according to the lawsuit.
Students and staff are required to wear Ye’s Yeezy clothing
Teachers and students were required to wear the rapper’s Yeezy brand black clothing, the lawsuit claims, and Nike and Adidas shoes were not allowed.
No ‘proper’ disciplinary system amid rampant bullying
Hailey and Byers described a school that seemed to do little to address rampant bullying.
In one incident, the son of an instructor who should not have been allowed on campus was assaulted, according to the lawsuit. In another incident, the lawsuit describes a student with multiple accounts of physical and verbal bullying who had become unruly by slapping an eighth-grader and attempting to assault a teacher.
Byers recommended expulsion, according to the lawsuit, although it is unclear if the student was expelled. There were several other students with unaddressed bullying issues, the lawsuit says, and there appeared to be no “proper” disciplinary system to deal with the issue.
Ye don’t ‘believe’ in cleaning products
Donda had no cleaning staff and because Ye did not “believe” in cleaning products containing chemicals, teachers were only allowed to clean with acidic water and a microfiber cloth, according to the former teachers’ lawsuit.
At both schools, the septic tank was routinely overflowing, according to Meadows.
Wires ‘sticking out’ and an electrical fire
After the school opened two years ago, it had no power for the first few months and lessons were held under commercial flood lamps powered by generators, according to Meadows’ lawsuit.
A year later, when Meeks began teaching classes in Donda, she found a building with “sticking out” electrical wires, loose baseboards and rugs lifted off the floor, according to the lawsuit.
“Plaintiff MEEKS is informed and believes the building was not safe for the occupants, let alone the children,” the lawsuit says.
At Yeezy Christian Academy, phone and electrical wiring remained exposed, and an electrical fire once started near a student eating area where wires lay on the ground, according to Meadows’ lawsuit.
Lawyers for the school and Ye have not responded to multiple requests for comment on the lawsuits. In a filing last month, a lawyer for the rapper asked a judge to dismiss the former teachers’ lawsuit and dismissed their allegations about the school, saying that portrayals of Donda Academy as a “dystopian institution designed to cater to the idiosyncrasies of Ye” were false.
“None of this is true and the allegations hurt current Donda Academy staff and students and their parents who will vouch for their positive experience,” the filing reads.
