Ministry, police received complaints years ago about shuttered Grace Christian School

https://thestarphoenix.com/news/saskatchewan/ministry-police-received-complaints-years-ago-about-shuttered-grace-christian-school

Saskatchewan’s government was told about alleged violence against students at a private Saskatoon Christian school years before its director was named in a class-action lawsuit alleging similar behaviour at another institution.

In 2016, a former teacher at Grace Christian School wrote to Boris Okrainetz, the superintendent of independent schools with the province’s Ministry of Education, saying a staff member at Grace Christian was seen pulling children by the ear and squeezing a child’s head in his hand as a form of punishment.

The former teacher also contacted Saskatoon police, who confirmed through a spokesperson this week that they received such a report that year. Saskatoon police this week also confirmed corresponding with the Ministry of Education at that time. Saskatoon police also confirmed receiving a second, similar complaint in 2018. No charges were laid.

This week, Education Minister Dustin Duncan closed Grace Christian School amid a broader reckoning around alleged abuse at such private Christian schools in Saskatchewan.

Caitlin Erickson, a plaintiff in the class action suit, said on Friday that the 2016 and 2018 complaints demonstrate a lack of oversight at such qualified, independent schools, which are run by non-profits such as churches.

“It really speaks to the gaps in oversight, and that these schools have been able to operate on essentially a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ type of policy,” Erickson said.

Erickson and other former students of Legacy Christian Academy have alleged former staff at the school physically, sexually and psychologically abused them during their time at the school, including spanking them with large, wooden paddles as a form of scriptural discipline.

One of the defendants named in the lawsuit is John Olubobokun, a former director of Legacy Christian Academy who is now the director of Grace Christian School.

The allegations against Olubobokun and other defendants have not been tested in court. He has not responded to requests for comment. None of the defendants has been criminally charged.

Postmedia requested an interview with Okrainetz this week. Instead, Ministry of Education spokeswoman Chelsey Balaski sent a prepared statement, saying such reports and allegations are “investigated throughly” and that complaints of a criminal nature are turned over to police.

“The details of any complaint made are kept confidential while student safety is ensured and if charges are laid it would be communicated to the public through local authorities,” she wrote.

Grace Christian School and its parent non-profit received more than $2.5 million in provincial funding from 2012 to the end of the 2021 fiscal year, according to public accounts. Such schools became eligible for government funding in 2013, in exchange for following government requirements, including stipulations about curriculum, an annual random inspection and submitting an annual return to the government.

Duncan and the provincial government have sought to reassure the public that regulations around such schools are adequate. The province recently changed its regulations, requiring such schools to inform the provincial government within 24 hours if a criminal complaint is made against a staff member.

Keith Jorgensen used to run a qualified independent school based at a bakery he owns in the Riversdale neighbourhood. He said his experience was that government inspections were “perfunctory,” usually lasting five to 10 minutes.

Jorgensen shared a 2015 letter from the Ministry of Education that pointed to what was then a new addition to independent school regulations in Saskatchewan, mandating that such schools may not use “a strap, cane or other physical object” or “a hand or foot” to physically discipline children. Corporal punishment has been illegal in all Canadian schools since 2004.

The provincial overnment recently hired administrators to oversee operations at three schools whose staff were implicated in the lawsuit, including Grace Christian School. The government this week said Oluboboken refused to cooperate on the administrator’s first day on the job, which led to Duncan revoking Grace Christian’s licence.

Grant Scharfstein, a lawyer representing Erickson and other plaintiffs, told thousands of Saskatoon teachers on Friday that the regulations around such schools are inadequate. He and Erickson, who were invited speakers at the Saskatoon Teachers Association’s 2022 convention, told the crowd the curricula at such schools did not prepare students for the real world.

“The Saskatchewan Ministry of Education has failed these children miserably,” Scharfstein said.

He told reporters he had copies of letters sent to the province by parents at Legacy Christian Academy in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, though he declined to share them.

“For any government to sit there and say, ‘Well, we didn’t know any of this,’ is not accurate. They didn’t do anything about it, but they certainly were aware of the concerns and issues,” he said.

More than 40 former students of Legacy Christian Academy have submitted complaints to Saskatoon police.

Eirckson used part of her speech to thank registered public teachers and was met with a standing ovation.