Mark Zuckerberg started school in his house for 30 students, neighbour complaints lead to a shut down order

Even Silicon Valley’s most powerful figure has discovered that local zoning laws are not easily bent. After years of complaints, investigations, and late-night exchanges with officials, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been forced to close an unlicensed private school that had been operating within his Palo Alto compound.

The project — known as the Bicken Ben School, reportedly named after one of the Zuckerberg family’s pet chickens — ran quietly from 2021, enrolling around 30 to 40 children in a Montessori-style programme.

It was only when neighbours in the affluent Crescent Park neighbourhood began noticing a steady stream of cars dropping off children each morning that suspicions arose. What initially seemed like an informal playgroup soon appeared to be a full-fledged school operating without the necessary city permits.

By 2022, casual concern had turned into organised opposition. Neighbours accused the city of giving Zuckerberg preferential treatment and ignoring code violations. “We find it quite remarkable that you are working so hard to meet the needs of a single billionaire family while keeping the rest of the neighbourhood in the dark,” one resident wrote to the Palo Alto Planning Department, according to 1,665 pages of documents obtained by WIRED.

As reported by India today, the unauthorised school was only the latest flashpoint in a long-running conflict between the Meta founder and his neighbours, who have complained for nearly a decade about continuous construction, increased security, and noise from his extensive estate. Zuckerberg reportedly owns 11 properties in the area, with private guards said to accompany city inspectors during visits.

When formal complaints about the school reached officials in 2024, tensions escalated further. One neighbour wrote that the facility was expanding “despite numerous neighbourhood complaints” and “multiple code violation reports,” urging the city to intervene.

Behind the scenes, Zuckerberg’s legal team sought to keep the school operational. Christine Wade, an attorney from SSL Law Firm, argued that the classes fell under “appropriate residential use.” The team even explored reclassifying the site as a state-licensed large family daycare, which would have limited local oversight — though the plan was eventually abandoned.

By March 2025, city officials issued an ultimatum: the Bicken Ben School must shut down by 30 June or face legal action. According to state records, the school officially closed in August 2025. A Meta family spokesperson, Brian Baker, maintained that the school had simply “relocated,” but declined to disclose its new location.