A former teacher is suing Donda Academy for retaliation and wrongful termination. The woman has implicated Kanye West in the lawsuit, though she does not believe he is entirely to blame for what she deems inadequate education practices.
Cecilia Hailey, the aforementioned former teacher, had much to reveal about the polarizing school. She stated that Donda Academy does not offer students “basic resources” such as chairs and confirmed the report that sushi is part of the lunch menu.
Hailey also spoke about the school’s practice of not giving students grades. “[Parents] need to consider that it’s going to be very hard for them to be able to transfer their kids out of that school next year or later because there are no grades,” she told TMZ. “They can’t get transcripts and […] they’re not getting what they need. They’re absolutely not getting what they need. The kids are being suppressed because of all the constant changes that go on at the school.”
“We have something in place called ‘Educate’ that we haven’t even been keeping up with,” Hailey continued. “But since I’ve been there have been no report cards given to the students or progress reports … [and] because [Donda] is not accredited, you really can’t get any documents from the school to show where you’ve been. We can tell you about things that we graded but for it to be legitimately documented with the Department of Education, they don’t have that.”
Hailey believes that she is not alone, as other African-American women who taught at Donda Academy were terminated due to their opposition to how students were taught, she claims. She revealed that neither the Holocaust nor African American history are part of the curriculum, which was one of her major issues.
While Hailey is grateful to the Donda artist for the opportunity, she does not feel their mission is being carried out, whether that be “academically, socially, or spiritually.”
This is the latest controversy for the school, following their sudden cancelation of the school year — and immediate backtracking — in the midst of Ye’s controversy surrounding his anti-semitic commentary back in October 2022.