Kanye West Scores Small Victory in Battle With Ex-Donda Teachers Who Claim His School Has No Janitor, Only Serves Sushi for Lunch
Brian Brumfield filed a motion to be relieved as West's representative in the lawsuit brought by Justin Poplawski, an autograph hunter who claimed he was assaulted by West in 2022.
May 6 2024, Published 11:50 a.m. ET
Kanye West shut down the three former Donda Academy teachers attempting to have him held personally liable in their bombshell lawsuit — but the battle is far from over.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled the claims against Kanye, in the case brought by Cecila Hailey, Chekarey Byers, and Timani Meeks, should be dismissed.
West purchased the ranch in 2018, when he was still married to ex-wife Kim Kardashian.
In their lawsuit, the teachers claimed they were discriminated against during their time working at Donda. In addition, they said they were fired after raising complaints about the alleged health and safety issues.
Most of the claims in the lawsuit were filed against Donda. However, two claims related to alleged labor violations were filed against Kanye.
The judge sided with Kanye — for now.
Cecila and Chekarey claimed Kanye had a strict set of rules he had the teachers and students follow. They said Donda did not have a janitor, proper discipline policies, or a school nurse.
“Specifically, they complained that DONDA ACADEMY does not have a proper disciplinary system, as students were being subject to severe bullying. In one incident, a student assaulted an eighth-grade student by slapping her, then attempted to assault another teacher,” the lawsuit read. “The student had multiple accounts of bullying, both physically and verbally, that had gone without discipline. However, there are several students with bullying issues that remain unaddressed. Plaintiff BYERS complained that the student who became violent should be expelled from DONDA ACADEMY.”
The lawsuit said students were only allowed to eat sushi at lunch, teachers were prohibited from using cleaning products containing chemicals and no classes were held on the second floor due to Kanye’s alleged fear of stairs.
The duo said they were labeled “aggressive” after bringing up the issues to supervisors.
Lawyers for Cecila and Chekarey said their clients believed, “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.”
Kanye scored a small win in court last week.
Cecila and Chekarey said they were fired in March 2023 without justification. Meeks said they were fired after complaining about the lack of textbooks for students.
Kanye demanded all claims be dismissed against him.
“The truth is, while Donda Academy was in operation as a school, Ye had nothing to do with Donda’s policies, practices, operations, and procedures relating to the payment of employee wages upon termination of employment or the content or timing of employee wage statements. Plaintiffs know that,” his lawyer wrote.
Kanye’s lawyer argued, “Hailey and Byers will point to their allegations regarding Ye’s control over the lunches served at Donda Academy or school uniforms for example. But all of those allegations say nothing about Ye’s involvement in any Labor Code violation relating to Hailey’s and Byers’ wage statements or post-termination wages.”
The plaintiffs fired back calling Kanye the “shot caller” of Donda and asked the court to deny his motion.
At the recent hearing, the Los Angeles Superior Court judge sided with Kanye.
He initially used the location to host Sunday Services and his Donda Academy headquarters.
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He found that the claims against Kanye did not “state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action since Hailey and Byers have not alleged facts establishing that Defendant may be held personally liable for the alleged violations of Labor Code sections.”
“Plaintiffs have not alleged that Defendant is their employer. Instead, they have alleged that Defendant is the founder, owner, and Chief Executive Officer of nonmoving defendant Donda Academy, Inc., which is alleged to be their employer,” the judge wrote. “The court finds that plaintiffs Hailey and Byers have not alleged facts establishing Defendant’s personal involvement in the alleged violations or his oversight or influence on Donda Academy, Inc.’s operations or policy that resulted in the alleged violations of the Labor Code.”
However, the judge said he would allow the former Donda teachers to amend their lawsuit to add new facts after they claimed they “can allege specific facts establishing [Kanye’s] involvement in the financial decision of Donda Academy.”
