NDP and former students call for child advocate to investigate alleged abuse

The Saskatchewan NDP is standing alongside former students of Legacy Christian Academy, demanding action be taken against teachers allegedly responsible for incidents of abuse.

Former student Caitlin Erickson said she knows of nearly 40 other former students who have come forward with allegations of abuse from their time at Legacy Christian Academy (LCA), formerly known as Christian Centre Academy. Another 18 are reportedly preparing reports to file with police, she said.

Erickson and another former student, Stephanie Hutchinson, who have both alleged they faced abuse while attending the Saskatoon independent school, said their concerns constitute a public safety issue.

“Child abuse is not a partisan issue. It matters across all platforms,” Hutchinson said, calling the response by Education Minister Dustin Duncan “disappointing.”

Last week, Duncan announced a suite of new measures to increase oversight and accountability at independent schools, including the appointment of a supervisor at LCA and a requirement that allegations of abuse or criminal charges be reported to the ministry within 24 hours.

Erickson said the former students alleging abuse have requested a meeting with Duncan, who “has essentially been non-responsive.”

“This is an issue that should bother everybody,” Erickson said.

Meara Conway, the NDP’s critic for human rights, joined the former students Thursday and said she wants to see people responsible for abuse held to account to ensure all students are safe.

While former students alleging abuse have made reports to the Ministry of Education, Conway said it took the multi-million-dollar lawsuit for the province’s education minister to “come out of hiding,” with measures that she called “wholly inadequate.”

Erickson is one of two plaintiffs who filed a class-action lawsuit against Mile Two Inc. and a number of former staff, teachers and others affiliated with the church and school, seeking damages “in excess of $25,000,000.”

“We are talking about allegations of sexual violence. We are talking about intolerant, discriminatory, abusive responses to questions of students’ sexuality,” Conway said.

“The moment that safety is called into question, the minister had a duty to act, period.”

Conway raised her concerns that several teachers named in the lawsuit — possibly as many as five, according to Erickson — will be returning to Saskatchewan classrooms to continue teaching this fall.

“Some people have magically retired in the past two weeks,” Erickson commented.

The human rights critic called it “unacceptable.”

Carla Beck, leader of the Saskatchewan NDP, decried the provincial government’s lack of action on the allegations raised by the former students.

“If you’re so shocked, why have you done what amounts to nothing?” she asked, calling it “beyond frustrating” that students alleging abuse have had to request a meeting with the minister.

The NDP and former students asked that the Saskatchewan Advocate for Children and Youth step in to conduct an investigation into the allegations. In a previous interview with 650 CKOM, child advocate Lisa Broda said she has been monitoring the situation closely and expressed her concern.

Beck said the issues raised should have triggered an immediate investigation by the government. Speaking as a former school trustee, Beck said appropriate action would have involved removing the teachers named in the lawsuit from their positions until the allegations had been investigated.

Both Hutchinson and Erickson said their allegations have essentially been sidelined by the Ministry of Education and the Saskatchewan Professional Teachers Regulatory Board.

Erickson also noted that the alleged incidents at LCA might not be isolated, saying she has heard from students across the province who have reached out to her to share their experiences of alleged psychological and emotional abuse at other qualified independent schools in Saskatchewan.