Assault charges laid against another staff member of Sask. private Christian school

A fifth staff member of a Saskatoon private Christian school has been charged with assaulting a student.

Unlike the other charges, this allegation is from this year. CBC News has also learned that Valour Academy — which was called Legacy Christian Academy at the time earlier this year — gave the accused a school "courage" award in the weeks following the alleged assault, and that she was working as a teacher but is not certified.

"I don't think that they're fit to be a school. I would like it shut down," said Laurissa Gerritse, the mother of the now-eight-year-old alleged victim. He was seven at the time of the alleged assault.

Gerritse said she can't believe the provincial government is allowing Valour Academy to remain open and giving it more than $700,000 in annual taxpayer subsidies amid the mounting criminal charges, a class action lawsuit, its controversial curriculum and other revelations. CBC News has interviewed more than two dozen parents and former students who say there was rampant, systemic abuse at the school that ranged from sexual and physical abuse to solitary confinement and exorcisms.

Valour Academy, which shares a building with Mile Two Church on Saskatoon's Pinehouse Drive, was known as Legacy Christian Academy until its name change this year. It was known as Christian Centre Academy before that.

Saskatoon police say a 44-year-old woman was charged this week with assault with a weapon from an incident with a student in May 2024. CBC News has learned that the woman was teaching physical education and other subjects, and is listed online as a "teacher" at the school. However, her name does not appear on the official Saskatchewan Professional Teachers Regulatory Board, and in an email this week to CBC News, the provincial government referred to her as an "educational assistant."

"I'm deeply disturbed by the experiences that are coming forward from Legacy Christian Academy. I think it's been renamed Valour, but students and staff should have safe learning and working environments that they're coming into," said Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation president Samantha Becotte.

"With all of the issues and concerns that have come from independent [private] schools, we as the Federation strongly believe that any independent schools shouldn't be receiving government funding. We believe that all public funds should be going to our public services."

A Ministry of Education official said in an email that the school remains on probation, but did not specify whether any other action will be taken. He noted that no one charged criminally or named in the lawsuit is allowed to be associated with the school.

"Accordingly, the educational assistant is no longer employed by the school," stated the email.

Gerritse agreed to meet with CBC News at her home this week after speaking with her son, husband and former students. Gerritse said they agreed it's important to speak out so the other students know they're not alone, and to show the government that things have not changed.

"I just don't want anyone else to get hurt," she said.

Gerritse said she remembers that "horrible" day back in May when she picked her son up at the end of the school day.

"He got in the car and he shut the door and he just broke and started bawling," she said.