Stories of the year: Former students allege there was a ‘failure to protect’ them at Legacy Christian Academy

https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/stories-of-the-year-former-students-allege-there-was-a-failure-to-protect-them-at-legacy-christian-academy

Allegations of abuse at a private Christian school in Saskatoon triggered a broader reckoning for qualified independent schools in the province, prompting calls for the government to take a more discerning look at how they are operated, regulated and funded.

In August, former students of Legacy Christian Academy went public with allegations stretching back to the 1980s. A $25-million civil suit has been filed against Legacy and its parent organization, Mile Two Church.

The school was formerly known as Christian Centre Academy, and Mile Two Church as Christian Centre Ministries.

At least 40 people have filed criminal complaints and Saskatoon police are investigating. The Saskatchewan Advocate for Children and Youth has also launched an investigation.

The StarPhoenix has spoken with church members and more than a dozen students who attended the school from its inception in the mid-1980s until the early 2010s. Students said the school and church were a controlling environment that punished homosexuality, reading and watching unapproved forms of media and even speaking to people outside the community.

In the suit’s statement of claim and in interviews, students accused staff members of physical, psychological and sexual abuse. All of the allegations have yet to be tested in court.

The suit was originally filed against more than 20 named defendants, most of them former church and school teachers and officials. Four more defendants were added in December, including Saskatoon Ward 5 Coun. Randy Donauer and the Government of Saskatchewan.

Caitlin Erickson, one of the chief plaintiffs, said the government was added to the suit because its response to the allegations has been inadequate.

There have been repeated calls to revoke the school’s licence or freeze its funding, including a September meeting between former students and Education Minister Dustin Duncan where they asked him directly.

“We wanted to make it clear there was a total failure to protect these children’s interests, both academically, based on the curriculums being taught and who was teaching, as well as the abuse issues that arose in these schools,” Grant Scharfstein, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said at the time.

As a qualified independent school, Legacy is owned and operated by a non-profit organization but still receives public funding based on enrolment.

Duncan previously said he would leave the matter to the criminal justice system before the government took action. But as approximately 180 students were registered to start classes at Legacy in September, the government introduced some changes to how the schools are regulated.

That included placing administrators to oversee operations at Legacy and two schools where former Legacy staff were working.

Grace Christian School in Saskatoon lost its licence after its director, John Oluboboken, a former director at Legacy, reportedly refused to cooperate on the administrator’s first day.

By the start of the school year, the Ministry of Education said the registered teachers named in the lawsuit would not be in the classroom. Erickson said removing the defendants from schools was one of the reasons the plaintiffs went public with their experiences.

In November, Erickson’s home was vandalized. She told Postmedia at the time that while she believes she is being threatened, she will continue to advocate.

“Everything is going to continue to go forward; this is a lot bigger than us. Religious corruption has just been perpetuated decade after decade, and it doesn’t need to continue happening for this generation,” she said.

Any student who attended Legacy between the early 1980s and the present day can sign on to the lawsuit, as can any minors in the church congregation who suffered or observed the alleged abuses. In December, Scharfstein said he had been contacted by close to 100 former students.

Once the defendants have been served and the class action certified by the court, the legal process could take as long as a decade.