In hot water. Kanye West is being sued by two former teachers from his school, Donda Academy, over several health, safety and educational violations.
Plaintiffs Cecilia Hailey and Chekarey Byers filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, April 6. Hired in November 2022 and January 2023, respectively, the pair claim that the school failed to acknowledge their complaints after detecting “multiple health and safety violations, as well as unlawful educational practices,” according to legal documents obtained by Us Weekly on Friday, April 7.
“Plaintiffs complained to [principal Moira] Love about various violations of Department of Education requirements, including but not limited to the fact that Donda Academy was not following state regulations for students in need of educational services, additional testing, or individualized learning plans,” the lawsuit stated.
Among dozens of other allegations against the school — including lack of bullying prevention, no janitorial or medical services, leaving student medication unsupervised in a janitor’s closet and allowing students to be picked up by strangers — the duo also claim that the institution didn’t follow “nutrition guidelines,” and that West, 45, would spend “$10,000 a week on sushi” for the kids’ daily school lunches.
“No action was taken to remedy Plaintiffs’ complaints regarding sanitation, health, safety or education standard pursuant to local and state law, which Plaintiffs made throughout the entirety of their employment,” the legal documents state. “Instead, Ms. Love called Plaintiffs ‘aggressive’ in the presence of others. Plaintiffs believe this type of comment facilitates stereotypes about African-American women as being confrontational simply for doing their job and voicing their legitimate concerns in order to provide a safe environment and proper education for their students.”
In the lawsuit, Hailey also claims that when she planned on addressing her concerns to West — who shares kids North, 9, Saint, 7, Chicago, 5, and Psalm, 3, with ex-wife Kim Kardashian — she was “threatened not to reach out to him.”
Both teachers were fired “on or around” March 3. Though not given a specific reason as to why, Hailey and Byers believe it was “in retaliation for their complaints about Defendants’ unlawful and unsafe educational practices.”
West launched Donda Academy — described in the lawsuit as “a private Christian school for students ranging from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade — in Sim Valley, California in 2022. However, the school announced it would be shutting down for the remainder of the 2022-2023 school year in October 2022, not long after the Grammy winner made headlines for his antisemitic comments.
“I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 [sic] On JEWISH PEOPLE,” the “Praise God rapper tweeted at the time. “The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”
Following online backlash about the tweet — which was deleted by Twitter — the Yeezy designer apologized, but said he “absolutely” did not regret making the hateful comments.
“I will say I’m sorry for the people that I hurt with the ‘death con’ [comments],” he told Piers Morgan later that month, “I feel like I caused hurt and confusion. And I’m sorry for the families of the people that had nothing to do with the trauma that I had been through, and that I used my platform where you say hurt people hurt people. I was hurt.”
Us has reached out to West and Donda Academy for comment.
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