The two teachers denounce dangerous, unregulated and unsanitary conditions for students in the establishment, which has been open to the public since September 2022.
The Donda Academy founded by rapper Kanye West is being sued. As reported by the American media Los Angeles Timestwo former teachers of this private Christian school filed a complaint to denounce the dangerous, unregulated and unsanitary conditions within the establishment.
According to these two teachers, Cecilia Hailey and her daughter Chekarey Byers, Donda Academy violates health and safety measures, which negatively affects the well-being of students.
Fired from their post since these allegations, they also claim to have been victims of racial discrimination, being the only black teachers in the school, and to have received pay slips on which several thousand euros were missing.
Open to the public since September 2022, this school was imagined by Kanye West with the objective – in all humility – of “preparing the next generation of leaders, thinkers and innovators”. Her name, “Donda”, is a reference to Donda West, the artist’s mother, a former teacher.
Program censorship and medical failure
In their complaint filed for harassment, unfair dismissal, discrimination and salary retention, Cecilia Hailey and Chekarey Byers specify in particular that certain restrictions were imposed on them on what could or could not be discussed in class.
“They absolutely wanted to remove a lot of information relating to history. They didn’t want the children to really know the history of African Americans or Asian Americans. The Holocaust was also omitted from the program”, details Cecilia Hailey in the complaint relayed by Los Angeles Times.
The two teachers also describe that there was no need for teachers to undergo training in first aid and harassment and that the school did not have a school nurse or appropriate medical equipment. Facts that Cecilia Hailey and Chekarey Byers tried to bring up to the principal, Moira Love, on numerous occasions, without any feedback from management afterwards.
Cecilia Hailey claims to have also tried to reach Kanye West but that “he was threatened not to get in touch with him”.
100% Sushi Diet and Floor Meals
In their complaint, Cecilia Hailey and Chekarey Byers highlight deficiencies in the meals provided to students. “They weren’t allowed to bring outside food or anything other than water,” the two teachers said.
According to them, the students were forced to eat only sushi all week and eat on the floor, as the school did not have tables and a canteen.
Cecilia Hailey and Chekarey Byers also describe rather arbitrary rules imposed on students such as wearing all-black outfits and having to stay on the ground floor of the school, “Kanye being afraid of the stairs”, according to the complaint.
This lawsuit follows an investigation of Rolling Stones on the Donda Academy, made in September 2022. The newspaper there revealed that the school was not up to standard and that the management had never held a similar position or undergone education training in the past.
Rolling Stones also specified that parents who chose to send their children to this establishment were obliged to sign a confidentiality agreement.
