"I Am On Some Complete Hitler Level Stuff" The Toxic Environment at Donda Academy Exposed
Latest Lawsuit Against Ye Reveals What It's Like To Work for Ye at Donda Academy, A Breeding Ground for Emotional Abuse
Kanye rushed close to Phillips's face, and started yelling so hard that his neck and face veins bulged: "FUCK YOU!" Kanye raised his hand and pointed at Phillips's neck condition and screamed: "FUCK YOUR NECK!" Then pointing at the school, Kanye belched "AND FUCK YOUR DAUGHTER." "I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT NONE OF THAT”
Ye Said It Himself. He Loves Lawsuits.
"I almost borderline like being sued because it's the only time where I can be myself. I sit in those depositions and it be hilarious," Ye said in 2013 during an interview on The Pablo Show.
Ye and his unaccredited private Christian school, Donda Academy, are being sued once again. This time, former employee Trevor Phillips filed an extremely detailed 42-page lawsuit against Ye and Donda Academy this week, accusing Ye of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. This is the fourth legal battle the school has faced since it opened its doors just two years ago, with new claims just as bizarre as the previous three lawsuits filed by other former staff members.
Headlines meant to shock the public read, "Kanye West wanted to cage students" and "Kanye West wanted to shave student's heads at Donda Academy, lock them in cages!" Though at this point, I think most of the public has become numb to Ye's outrageous statements.
I was more surprised to learn that Donda Academy was still in operation. I remember the school released a statement announcing its closure after his slew of public controversies in late 2022. Keyshia Cole pulled her son out of the school after Ye made a social media post talking about a school shooting.
"I took my DJ out of Donda sadly after Ye said he was back to shoot the school up; that scared me a bit," Cole said on Twitter in October 2022.
Hours after the school sent out an email to parents announcing the school's immediate closure, they sent a follow-up email saying, Never mind.
After news of this latest lawsuit broke, a mother closely affiliated with Donda Academy reached out to me urging me to cover this story. She offered to provide details of a firsthand perspective on what goes on at the school and answer any questions I may have.
As some of you maybe noticed, I stopped tracking Ye in recent months. His outrageous antics grew too exhausting and his rants all too repetitive. Quite frankly, I'm not only sick of reading about him but disinterested in seeing constant paparazzi photos of him and his new muse, wife Bianca, parading around in a rotation of explicitly sheer outfits. It feels less shocking than try hard at this point. And I don’t see art in such unfortunate styling.
As a mother, I've always been a bit confused by Donda Academy — why any parent would send their kid to a spontaneously constructed school run by a manic pop star. As I've stated before, I respect Ye’s artistry, but I would never send my boys to be educated under his rule, no matter how enlightening and creative the mission statement claimed to be.
Reading the most recent blurbs about the lawsuit, I was curious about what other parents thought about it, so I ended up contacting the mother of a family member affiliated with Donda Academy. We had a long conversation. She backed up some of the claims made in the latest lawsuit by Trevor Phillips, described what Donda Academy was like when it first opened, and how quickly a school initially founded to elevate the minds of the youth declined into a dysfunctional environment, falling more apart each day.
This source wishes to remain anonymous to protect her children.
Trevor Phillips Hired November 2022
Trevor Phillips couldn’t have been hired at a worse time. Ye brought him on board to work at the end of November 2022, just weeks after he was dropped from Adidas and Gap for his antisemitic tweets, and days before his infamous Alex Jones’ interview where he declared his love for Hitler.
It’s not shocking that a large portion of the lawsuit claims that Ye was constantly speaking ill of Jewish people, calling them “greedy” and claiming that the Jewish people “stole all his money.” If you recall, Ye was hyper focused on what he believed to be an “elite Jewish class controlling the world” during the final months of 2022.
According to the lawsuit, Trevor Phillips was a huge fan of Ye and thought working with him would be an opportunity of a lifetime. Originally he was hired to work for Ye’s fashion brand to oversee all projects related to growing cotton and other plants to use as materials for YZY clothing to help Yeezy evolve into a “self- sustainable community.” Later he was sent to work at Donda Academy. Reading through the lawsuit, it seems Ye expected his employees to work for all of his independent ventures simultaneously without targeted focus or defined roles assigned.
Phillips Claims Ye wanted to “Shave Students’ Heads”
Phillips’ claims that Ye spoke openly in front of two children at the school and said he wanted the kids to shave their heads and lock them in cages.
Around this same time Ye held a casting call in Downtown Los Angeles looking for “bald models only.” Fans were expecting this to be his first independent fashion show since his split with Gap and Adidas, but the performance ended up being underwhelming and sloppily thrown together. A slew of Models, some with with freshly shaved heads, stood still in a dimly-lit room on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, holding a candle while Frank Ocean’s song “Self Control” played on repeat.
According to sources on site, Ye sat in a car and watched the performance on FaceTime and then gave away plain white t-shirts to fans who showed up.
Did Ye Actually Want to Put Kids in Cages?
While all the headlines are obviously leading with Phillips’ disturbing claim that Ye “wanted to lock kids in cages,” my source believes the idea was never executed because it was just another one of Ye’s fleetingly abstract thoughts.
“As you know, Ye says shit,” she laughed.
“In his mind, everything is like an art installation. It’s all under the guise of creation in an abstract way.”
Whether Ye meant it or not, Phillips’ claimed he said it in front of two children at the school, which could make it problematic in the court of law regardless if it was executed or not. Most would agree that these types of “abstract” ideas should be reserved for artistic performances, not school activities involving elementary school children.
Sexual Harassment Claims at Nobu
In the lawsuit, Phillips claims Ye invited him to Nobu — one of Ye’s favorite spots —to talk about the job, but when he got there, all Ye wanted to do was complain about Jewish people and confess some of his sexual fantasies. In a completely bizarre scene, Ye had the hotel staff turned on Batman and the two of them sat there watching it on zero volume. Ye then laid on the bed and started making an up-and-down gesture with his hands that Phillips interpreted as simulating mastrubation.
Ye started talking about his sex life:
“I used to have orgies every day- at least two-to-three girls. And now man, I can’t even lay down without jacking off.”
“I got to keep my hand away from my phone to keep me from looking at pornos,” Ye allegedly told Phillips.
Phillips claimed Ye ended the night by FaceTiming a girl and said, “Next time I see you, you better make sure you are wearing the lingerie and shoes I got you.” Phillips recognized this girl from nudes Ye had shared with him and Yeezy staff members.
Porn in the work place has been referenced previously while Ye was still employed by Adidas. Videos circulated online that showed him pulling out his phone and showing Adidas executives porn clips. Ye exposed this information himself, uploading a video to YouTube in late 2022 while his contract with Adidas was under review, that included scenes of him showing porn to the Adidas executives and Yeezy workers in the room with him.
Back in 2018, an employee said that Ye also showed him an explicit picture of Kim during a job interview and other Yeezy employees also went on the record and said Ye showed them explicit videos of Kim.
“Fuck Your Neck! And FUCK YOUR DAUGHTER!!!”
Reading the court documents, I was especially appalled by one of the claims Phillips made, alleging that Ye made fun of a visible growth on his neck and threatened to punch him. Phillips claims Ye got close to his face and screamed, “FUCK YOU!” “FUCK YOUR NECK! and “FUCK YOUR DAUGHTER!” Phillips’ daughter was a student at Donda Academy at the time.
My source said this story has been circulating around for awhile, long before it was filed in the lawsuit, because the outburst took place in front of over 100 people who were at Donda that morning for the Sunday Service.
Everything was calm that day, she remembers, until Ye showed up, walked to the back of the building and spotted a very small patch of grass about 3 inches in diameter with some flowers and plants growing from it.
“For some reason, Ye became hyper focused on this one tiny patch of grass and started lashing out on Trevor, who he believed was the gardener who failed him” my source said.
The lawsuit describes Trevor minding his own business, watering the plants that morning, when he suddenly heard Ye screaming on top of his lungs, “AYE YOU GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE! YOU ARE FUCKING FIRED!”
Ye continued screaming “YOU ARE FUCKING FIRED! GO TELL YOUR MOTHER AND GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!” he ranted in front of over 100 people, including at least 40 children.
Trevor’s mother, who was also an employee of Donda, asked him what was wrong and Trevor explained to her that he had no idea what he was in trouble for.
Ye’s nearly 7-foot tall security guard began to escort Trevor off the property until Ye’s assistant stepped in to mediate. Ye calmed down and brought Trevor over to talk.
The lawsuit states that Ye then turned to Trevor and said, “Just because this looks beautiful to most people and think the garden looks good doesn’t mean it what I wanted,” making an excuse for his explosive behavior rather than apologizing for the outburst.
My source recalls how strange it was to witness a bunch of children and adults just standing around silently watching an idolized superstar behave so erratically.
She said Ye exploded into a frenzied rage, yanking flowers and plants out of the ground “like a complete madman.” Those watching stood in disbelief, waiting for his outburst to end, like seasoned parents enduring a toddler's temper tantrum, silently waiting for it to end before sending them to timeout. But when a grown man, who is supposed to be the leader of a school and church service erupts this way, it begs the question: what exactly is he teaching these poor kids?
“He was quite literally ripping life out of the ground which is a metaphor in itself for where he was in life,” she said.
In the lawsuit, Phillips claimed he started crying and tried to explain to Ye he was doing his best and was so grateful for the opportunity to work, but that Ye didn't want to hear it and instead made fun of his neck condition and then threatened to punch him before snapping out of the rage and cosplaying as Mario. Naturally, Ye’s younger fanbase found this detail hilarious, commenting online that “this story made them love Ye even more,” many of them admitting they find his unhinged behavior “soooo funny.”
PHILLIPS’ OTHER CLAIMS:
Ye demanded Phillips be on call 24/7 and expected him to work 60-80 hours a week, promising him $100/hour which was far from what he ended up getting paid
Ye often spoke about the Jewish elite class at the school and the staff ignored him to avoid being fired
Ye told the employees he would fire them if they ever got fat
Ye treated the black employees far worse than the white employees and would scream and berate the black employees
Ye compared himself to Hitler and idolized Hitler
Ye spread antisemitism and constantly spoke about how much he hates Jewish people and how Jewish people stole his money
Ye lashed out on Phillips for jobs that weren’t his
Phillips was in constant fear of getting fired
Ye never took accountability for his actions and never apologized
Ye asked Phillips to complete school renovations without any permits and when Phillips told him a permit was required he threatened to replace him
Phillips believes that Ye truly does believe he is a king, which means he is above the law and rules don’t apply to him
Ye got triggered by minuscule things and blew them out of proportion
Anytime Phillips told Ye no, he was threatened to be replaced
Philips claimed Ye is controlling and emotionally abusive, describing him as an “ill-tempered tyrant”
Ye says he’s “I am on some complete Hitler level stuff, Minus the gas chambers, in Jesus name” in a text exchange to Phillips, and expects everyone to agree with his views
“Kim Take My Kids Out of Sierra Canyon, the Fake School”
Since early 2022, Ye has been publicly attacking Kim Kardashian for not letting their kids enroll at Donda Academy and sending them to Sierra Canyon, an elite private school in the valley, instead. Ye constantly refers to Sierra Canyon as a “fake school.” In his latest hit song, “Carnival” which charted #1 globally, he raps “got my kids in a fake school,” in one of the verses.
“KIM TAKE MY KIDS OUT. OF SIERRA CANYON NOW IT’S A FAKE SCHOOL FOR CELEBRITIES THAT ARE USED BY THE ‘SYSTEM,’” he posted on Instagram a month ago. His caption read, “At this point everybody knows what ‘the system’ is code word for,” putting ‘the system’ in quotes. Obviously, people assumed he was talking about Jewish people again, despite his public apology to the Jewish community written in Hebrew months prior.
After finding out more, it’s easy to assume why Kim wouldn’t want her kids involved in a unaccredited school poorly run by her ex-husband who constantly attacks her online.
My source insists that Donda was once a very beautiful school brimming with potential.
“When Ye started the school, his vision was to radically renovate the concept of education,” she said.
This new approach to learning is what initially attracted many parents who were drawn to the idea of an unconventional style of education.
“In the beginning when he created Donda Academy, it was a place for his own kids to learn and thrive. Children were singing beautifully in the choir and the school had a very supportive and loving environment.”
She said the choir leaders were wonderful women, great examples to the children, fostering an empowering environment for growth. Despite being loved by the parents and students, both women ended up getting fired, which became a recurring pattern at Donda, erratically firing the positive administrators and replacing them with unqualified ones, causing disruption and confusion for the faculty and students.
“It’s clear that Ye has a disinegrated feminine mother wound, and the women he hires are not honored or respected in a way that supports the environment that he believes he’s cultivating for children,” she said, regarding how Ye treated the two female administrators who were fired from Donda without explanation or compensation.
At one point, Dov Charney, the owner of LA Apparel who has a slew of sexual harassment lawsuits against him, was made CEO of Yeezy and everyone at the school had to report to him, as he was handling all the money.
As stated by Phillips in the lawsuit, Ye would constantly have his staff take on roles they weren’t hired for and blended all his ventures together. Yeezy was Donda. Donda was Yeezy. Everything was and still is completely unorganized, illogical and utterly dysfunctional.
The source claims Ye has become more and more absent from the school and hasn’t held a strong presence on campus since last June. She wonders how much longer the school will even stay open. His Donda Doves basketball team no longer exists, and she wonders if the school will be the next venture to go.
Final Thoughts
Meanwhile, Ye’s hardcore fanbase continues to brush this latest lawsuit off as another “hit piece” or “money grab” despite the fact that Trevor Phillips is only seeking $35,000 in damages.
Sources insist this isn’t a money grab, but a reckoning to hold Ye accountable for years of repeated patterns of abusive behavior.
“When will it be time for Ye to actually hear what people are saying and take some accountability for the way he’s been conducting his life and businesses?”my source asked as we wrapped up the call.
Sadly, I don’t think anytime soon. You can’t force consciousness on someone that refuses to look inward.
And if Ye is great at one thing, it’s deflection —making everyone the bad guy in his story, even those who love him the most.
EDIT: Word is that more parents are pulling their kids out of Donda and they’re desperately scrambling to recruit new students.
Read about all the other bizarre claims made against Donda Academy in previous lawsuits: Donda Academy Lawsuit Accusations
IF I cared more- knew someone involved- and loved them-
THEN I would care about the complexities.
But I don’t.
SO-
I read this, and lump it all under “mental illness not being addressed fully or accurately, and outright perversity.”
I don’t care- anymore- no matter the talents, or the past hilarity, or the alleged abuses he’s suffered.
He’s got the abilities and funding to get help.
May God lead him/ may he listen.
Celebrity worship undermines the moral underpinnings of our civilization, by design and intention. Who are the designers?