Kanye West's School Accused of Trapping Students Inside and Only Serving Them Sushi

The Donda Academy - a private Christian prep school run by rapper, Kanye West - has come under legal fire after being accused of violating multiple health and safety rules. Mirror reports that the school follows a bizarre set of rules laid out by the Yeezy founder, which includes forbidding cleaning services, locking doors from the outside, and feeding the students only one sushi meal per day, according to a recent lawsuit.

Two former educators, Cecilia Hailey and her daughter Chekarey Byers, claim that they were sacked after complaining about potential dangers to students, including code violations while filing the LA County wrongful termination, discrimination, and unlawful withholding of wages suit against West. 

The lawsuit also states that the non-accredited school lacks basic facilities: there are no tables or chairs and students are instructed to sit on the floor to eat sushi for lunch every day - an expense West spent $10,000 per week on. The children are forced to follow an unconventional set of rules including not allowing crossword puzzles and artwork to be hung on walls and students being barred from the second floor because West “was reportedly afraid of stairs,” according to the suit. The school also failed to follow nutritional guidelines and lacked security, with students allowed to be picked up by strangers after school, the court papers state.

They also revealed that the children remain locked from the outside, forcing them to remain indoors all day, creating a fire hazard. According to NYPost, medications are also stored haphazardly, there is no school nurse on site, and janitorial services were forbidden because “West did not believe in cleaning products containing chemicals,” the lawsuit states. “Kanye West is clearly as bad at running a school as he is at managing his own personal and professional life, enabling an unsafe and illegal school environment for students,” attorney Ron Zambrano, a lawyer for the teachers, said in a statement. “Kanye needs to realize his genius is in creating music, not in school administration.”

The Donda Academy situated in California’s Simi Valley is named after the Heartless rapper's late mother. In early 2023, Hailey and Byers complained to Donda Academy’s principal that the school followed “unlawful educational practices.” During a meeting, they cited a lack of discipline that led to “severe bullying…that had gone without” punishment, along with concerns about the school’s hygiene. However, instead of taking action, the principal allegedly accused Byers and Hailey, who are both black, of being  “aggressive,” and  “facilitated stereotypes about African American women as being confrontational simply for doing their job,” according to the lawsuit, which also claims of racial discrimination at the workplace. 

As of March 3, 2023, they were both fired and given no reason for the termination, according to court documents. Their lawsuit, which names Donda Academy, West, and the directors of the school, seek “general damages not limited to emotional distress” but doesn’t specify the dollar amount. There has been no official comment from West or his team as of now, The academy website states that it admits 12 students per class and offers education from Pre-K to 12th grade.