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WRONG CLASS
Kanye West ‘wanted Donda Academy students to learn to shoot guns’ as teacher lifts lid on sick ‘Hitler vibes’ at school
Former Donda Academy teachers have revealed the full horror of working for the star
KANYE West planned to teach kids at his failed Christian private school how to shoot guns and march after his disturbing rants about Hilter and the Nazis, a whistleblower has claimed.
Ex-teacher Cecilia Hailey, who is suing the rapper along with former colleagues for wrongful termination, has revealed new details of her time at Donda Academy.
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Speaking exclusively to The U.S. Sun in an on-camera interview, she laid bare what it was like behind the walls of the secretive school in Chatsworth, a suburban neighborhood in Los Angeles, in the months after Kanye's antisemitism scandal in November 2022.
Hailey, whose case has a trial date set for April next year, described the school as being more like a "zoo" and alleged any push-back on Kanye's wild demands fell on deaf ears.
"He did want the children to learn marching," Hailey claimed.
"He wanted all the children to be educated in how to carry a gun, how to shoot a gun.
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"I'm like, 'Are you kidding me? I'm not having my third graders out learning how to shoot rifles, absolutely not.'
"It came up kinda early when I first got there, kinda wanting to know how I felt about the kids learning to march, and how I felt about the kids taking gun classes and rifle classes.
There were armed guards outside, but the kids were not safe inside.
Cecilia Hailey
"And I'm thinking that is not gonna happen if I'm here, that's not acceptable, it's not necessary, and what does that have to do with education?
"Teaching these kids to march, to be honest with you I kind of got like Hitler vibes around that or real bizarre things."
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Hailey branded Kanye "delusional," adding, "And I don't know what he's thinking. I don't know where he thinks children fit in this.
"We're not talking about adults here, we're talking about eight-year-olds, twelve-year-olds, 15-year-olds."
Kanye West ‘in free fall’ after Yeezy business ‘falls apart’ as rapper could face financial issues amid lawsuits
A second teacher involved in the lawsuit also alleged to The U.S. Sun that she was aware of a person Donda Academy was looking to hire who would teach tactical and military skills.
They claimed, "He was going to teach the kids how to survive in the wilderness, hunting, camping, and how to load and shoot firearms.”
There is no indication that children at the school ended up marching or completed rifle training or that families who had to sign NDAs were aware of the plans.
Hailey also alleges the school had a serious bullying issue.
She claims she witnessed students cowering under tables as physical fights broke out, and kids were not allowed to be disciplined.
"There was a lot of bullying," she said. "Kids were getting physical; they would fight, the bigger kids would fight the little kids.
"So you might have a fourth grader hitting on a kindergarten or a first grader. We had kids hiding under tables because they were afraid. It was mayhem, really.
"There were armed guards outside, but the kids were not safe inside."
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Donda Ray Academy and Kanye West did not return multiple requests for comment regarding the new claims about gun training and marching or the other claims made by Hailey.
Our outlet also requested comment from then-principal Moira Love, who did not respond.
Kanye did, however, deny the main claims in the suit when it was filed last year before his lawyer dropped out.
The latest allegations made about Donda come as a military veteran has filed a new lawsuit against Kanye, known as Ye, in which he claims the star threatened to kill him when he raised issues about alleged abuse at the school.
The veteran, identified anonymously in the filing as John Doe, is suing for infliction of emotional distress, numerous labor code violations, and retaliation.
The lawsuit alleges on or about May 14, 2024, Kaney began to let most of the Yeezy leadership team go, which has been confirmed by sources to The U.S. Sun.
Doe claims the star's behavior became erratic during that time.
Shortly afterward, Doe got a call from a school employee telling him about the "abuse of children had occurred at Donda and that supposedly nothing was done to correct or report the problem," per the suit.
Doe quickly told the remaining Yeezy leadership about the reports, but, according to the lawsuit, "Almost immediately thereafter, on the same day, Ye himself called Doe to yell, curse, and threaten Doe with great bodily injury, including death, if Doe repeated what Doe learned from the Donda employee."
According to the suit, Kanye shouted at Doe, "You're f***ing dead to me," and also played bizarre recordings of voices that were threatening harm.
Kanye has yet to officially respond to the lawsuit, but a source close to the star slammed the suit, saying "many of the details in his complaint are simply fantastical and false."
'NO WINDOWS, NO PLAYGROUND & HUNGRY KIDS'
Meanwhile, former teacher Hailey also alleges children were left hungry at Donda because Kanye suddenly decided to only serve them sushi.
"Initially, the kids were being given a decent meal," she said. "And then all of a sudden, Kanye gave them sushi every single day.
"We had kids that were hungry because they didn't eat sushi.
"So then that means from eight o'clock in the morning to five or six o'clock at night, maybe they only had fruit in the day.
"We'd just kind of sneak out and go get food for the kids because we had to. We absolutely had to because the kids were hungry."
Kanye founded Donda Academy around 2022 as a tribute to his late mother, Professor Donda West.
She worked for more than 30 years at Chicago State University.
After retiring in 2004, she relocated to California to work full-time for Kanye as his star rose, but he was left heartbroken when she died just three years later at the age of 58.
The school began at a ranch campus in Simi Valley, California, where teachers claim Kanye removed the windows, and kids were left cold in the winter months.
It then moved to Chatsworth, around 14 miles away, and Kanye allegedly demanded the windows be blacked out.
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There was also nowhere for the children to play at lunch in the fresh air, according to Hailey, who said they simply transformed the small classroom into an entertainment area.
"The sports that they were playing inside, during recess time, they needed to be outside, they needed to have a playground, they could have been seriously injured," she said.
The U.S. Sun also sat down with attorneys Ron Zambrano and Neama Rahmani, who are representing Hailey and other teachers in the lawsuit, which was first filed in April last year.
They also represent client Isaiah Meadows, a former assistant principal at Yeezy Christian Academy, the predecessor to Donda Academy, in a separate suit.
Meadows, who is suing for wrongful termination, also claimed he was suspended and later fired after complaining about conditions at the ranch school.
Kanye denied the claims in the lawsuit, and a jury trial is scheduled for April 2025.
Zambrano said, "Kanye had this idea at that point of no windows. So they were at the campus, and then all of a sudden, these kids were in these rooms where there were no windows at 8 am.
"Everything had to be black. No color in the classrooms for an elementary school is odd.
"He didn't like, at that point, to have things on the second floor. The no windows, I think, is the most egregious thing."
A FRIEND'S CONCERN
The U.S. Sun also spoke to Malik Yusef, who previously worked as an advisor at Donda Academy and has been friends with Kanye for decades, having met him through his mother.
Malik said he can't remember a time when they didn't talk about Kanye's dream of running a school which took a different approach to education.
Inside those walls was a zoo, and they were not being educated at all.
Cecilia Hailey
"We can't lock kids in at 3 years old," he said. "At 3 years old you wanna be a doctor, at 5 you wanna be an electrician, at 6 you wanna be a superhero.
"I don't think we should lock kids in like that, and I think Donda Academy was meant to be free in that way.
"Kanye's not a principal, he's not a certified teacher in that way, so obviously we got to go hire the best people, to bring them in, to do the job necessary.
"It's not easy to get traditionally trained educators to kind of come back to a more holistic brand of teaching, even with all the skills. and their je ne sais quoi still have to train them how to deal with these babies."
He defended many of Kanye's wild requests for how the school should be run, saying, "I think sushi is a great meal, my children eat sushi, I know that we live in a world where everyone should be able to eat fresh foods.
"The window thing. I was not aware of that. I've heard rumors of it, I've not spoken to Ye about that.
"But I do know that we had a sensory deprivation experiment that we did, as adults, when we were working on the Donda album. We were living in a stadium. There were no windows. And I think it helped concentrate us."
When it comes to the claims of bullying and the kids being in possible danger, he added, "Safety, what is safety, where is there safety in the world? We have school shootings, and we’re talking about kids feeling somewhat uncomfortable.
"And I'm not in any way minimizing the parent's concern for their kids. But you’re not gonna be overconcerned at Donda Academy and send your kids to public school where we've had 300 mass shootings. Sorry. I'm not going for it."
He added, "I think there was some frivolity to those lawsuits, I think people get a chance to pile in and dogpile on Ye because he has money."
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But he did admit they may have had some genuine concerns, and Kanye should address the lawsuits and not avoid them.
REBRANDING AS A CHARITY
The U.S. Sun can reveal the school is no longer registered with the state of California as of June 2024, but papers were filed for Donda Ray Academy to become a charity.
Insiders say children can audition, and coaches who have worked with Kanye for years still deliver sessions focusing on dance, choir, and basketball.
It still has an active Instagram account but a password-protected website, and although Kanye has little to do with the day-to-day running of the charity, he's not fully removed.
A source told The U.S. Sun, "We are operating training for the youth. For free. Pouring into our youth and the community, which has always been one of Ye's visions."
They insisted the children at Donda Ray are "thriving" but confirmed they still take "certain directives" from their founder, although they did not confirm what they were.
"We are fortune enough to hold the building because Ye invested his own money into the vision," they added.
Former teacher Hailey was unimpressed when she heard the school was now a charity.
She said, "It needs to be totally disseminated, it does not need to exist. We don't know what they're doing. We know kids come after school, so what? We don't know what's really going on.
"I worry about my kids; I wonder where my children are, how they’re doing in the schools, if they’re someplace else, how they’re progressing.
"Again, the traumas they’ve experienced in the last two years, having so much chaos in their school life.
"Are they sleeping well, are they eating better, are they stable, because they were so young, and this is the age where they're impressionable.
Inside Kanye West's legal troubles
Katy Forrester, The U.S. Sun's Assistant Exclusives Editor, has been covering Kanye's rollercoaster life and controversies for several years. Here she gives her opinion on his legal troubles.
Kanye has never been one to have his act together, and we've almost lost count of the amount of lawsuits he's now involved in.
But he doesn't seem to be worried at all, as sources have previously told me he barely shrugs when it comes to being served legal papers.
Many of the people who have sued Kanye in the past have had to wait years for settlements as he does not prioritize legal complaints.
Despite the fact he's been sued before, I have never known his situation to be as bad as it is today with 10 or more lawsuits.
I wouldn't want to be Kanye's lawyer, I don't think anyone has that much time on their hands, and he is known to be a bad communicator.
One former lawyer even stated they did not even know of his whereabouts at one point, only stating he was "somewhere in Japan" and not responding to them. A regular theme.
His suits with former Donda Academy employees have been stuck in limbo as he's lost yet another lawyer, and now has nobody representing him ahead of the trial dates in 2025.
I sadly think it may be a long while before we see Kanye in a courtroom.
At the moment, he's still believed to be in Japan with his second wife, Bianca Censori.
Meanwhile, some of the most disturbing claims are from his former assistant, Lauren Pisciotta, who filed a bombshell lawsuit earlier this year.
She first sued the star for wrongful termination, sexual harassment, fraud, and breach of contract, among other reasons, in June.
Pisciotta claimed Kanye begged to sleep with her and then fired her after she turned him down.
In an amended complaint, she has since made even more worrying claims, including that he allegedly sexually assaulted her.
She claims years before she worked for the star, she went to a studio session in Santa Monica hosted by Kanye and Sean 'Diddy' Combs, the latter of which is now awaiting trial in New York on sex trafficking charges.
Pisciotta alleged everybody was told to have a drink if they wanted to stay, but after sipping hers she started to feel “disoriented” and in an “altered and heavily impaired state.”
She claimed she felt "physically ill and confused," according to the suit, and didn't remember anything, believing she was drugged by the assistant at the studio.
In her suit, she alleges years later Kanye referred to the night in question and told her they did "kind of hook up a little one time."
She claims she told him she didn't remember anything, to which he supposedly laughed and replied, "Women love to say they don’t remember."
Kanye has not yet filed a response to the suit or commented on the allegations.
I think it's shocking he appears to be avoiding the suit, like many others, as court records show Pisciotta's team has still not been able to serve him legal papers.
He has been seen on multiple occasions recently in Tokyo, while reports suggest he has even considered moving to Japan full-time.
"I hope they’re getting some counseling, and I’m hoping they're getting the services they need if they need them to get caught up.
"Because going into a school when you’re behind is not good at all.
"My concern was for those children, knowing that inside those walls was a zoo, and they were not being educated at all, and it was supposedly a private school."
Asked what she would say to Kanye directly if she had the chance, she said, "Kanye, this was a mess, and you knew it was a mess, and you shouldn't have gotten yourself involved.
"If you know that you can't run something adequately, don't put the lives of children and other people in the middle of your stuff."
Attorney Zambrano said, "Kanye has many talents, and he's done many things, but I don't think running the school is where his strengths are.
"Despite all his legal problems, we still haven't seen Kanye West in a courtroom, in a trial. So, we'll be interested to see if that actually happens."
FLURRY OF LAWSUITS
The embattled star is the defendant in a litany of lawsuits, but his former attorney, Brian Blumfield, has asked to be removed from those he was dealing with.
Kanye has no other legal representation that The U.S. Sun is aware of.
Brumfield previously claimed in court papers that Kanye ended their attorney-client relationship on June 21 and refused to pay him or even speak with him.
Among the many cases is one filed by Trevor Phillips, another former Donda Academy employee, who is suing for harassment, discrimination, and a hostile work environment.
"In front of the schoolchildren, Kanye continued his dangerous rhetoric. Kanye started to openly discuss how he only likes to date white women," he claimed in the complaint.
"Then addressing the two school children, Kanye told them that he wanted them to shave their heads and that he intended to put a jail at the school — and that they could be locked in cages. The staff quickly distracted the children, and escorted them out of the room."
West denied all of the claims in a formal response, with his counsel claiming, "each and every purported cause of action [...] is uncertain, vague, and ambiguous."
Kanye's counsel added that Phillips' "alleged damages, if any, were caused by circumstances and conduct other than that alleged" in the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Hailey said she was not afraid to come forward and speak about her time at Donda.
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"I felt whistleblowing was going to be the only way these things were going to change," she said.
"I didn't worry about who it was. I didn't worry about the repercussions — ‘Oh it’s Kanye West and he’s gonna come after you’ — I couldn't care less."
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