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Former students who attended Legacy Christian Academy were not happy to learn that the school has changed its name to Valour Academy.
Caitlin Erickson attended Legacy Christian Academy and is one of the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit that alleges the church perpetrated and allowed the sexual abuse of minors by church staff, as well as allowed the use of corporal punishment on students.
The allegations have not been proven in court.
Erickson said she started to hear rumblings about the possible name change almost a year ago.
“There were rumblings … they were going to try and change their name to get out of the probationary conditions that the Ministry of Education had put on them. So it’s no surprise that they have officially done that,” she explained.
🚨It gets better. @SKGov put Legacy Christian School on a 2 year prob period May 25, 2023. “No person(s) named in the proposed class action lawsuit, may be involved in the operations, the administration, including Board of Directors, or be in the employment (paid or volunteer)🧵 pic.twitter.com/XtVw4PPYIM
— SaskCate 🇨🇦 (@CateSask) July 4, 2024
Third name change for school
This is the third name change the school has gone through. Before being named Legacy Christian Academy, it was called Christian Centre Academy.
Erickson can’t believe that the school was allowed to change its name.
“I’m shocked to be honest that the provincial government would allow a place like this to change their name. A name change is clearly being done to dupe new families in that don’t know the history,” she said.
“To allow them to change their name to get possible new families in the door considering everything that has gone on is really criminal in my mind. It’s quite shocking.”
Laurissa Gerritse was a student at Legacy Christian Academy and also angered to learn the school was able to rebrand.
“I thought it was kind of ridiculous because it just seems like they keeping trying to change their name but I don’t think that changes anything that they’ve done,” Gerritse said.
Gerritse mentioned Erickson told her a couple weeks ago about the rumblings of a name change. She calls it concerning.
“… it just seems like they keeping trying to change their name but I don’t think that changes anything that they’ve done.” — Laurissa Gerritse, former student
“I think that they keep trying to hide or change their name in hopes that it will just erase what has happened, but it doesn’t,” Gerritse said. “If you have nothing to hide, then why did you change your name in the first place?”
Erickson said there’s a significant amount of alumni who have been reaching out to the Ministry of Education over the past two years expressing their concerns about the school and its history.
Caitlin Erickson speaks to media at the offices of Scharfstein LLP on Dec. 13, 2022. (Libby Giesbrecht/650 CKOM)
Erickson suggests the ministry isn’t listening.
“At this point, it falls on deaf ears. There’s obviously lots of concerns with that place — we’ve done our due diligence as alumni to present the information, present the evidence to the Ministry of Education, and we’re just not seeing a want to act on any of that,” she said.
Erickson wants the government to stop funding the school immediately.
“I think, given everything, the provincial government needs to stop funding it with public dollars. Quietly putting this school on a probation period for two years last year is not sufficient enough,” she said.
“The bare minimum at this point would be pulling taxpayers money. People in Saskatoon have spoken and people in this province have spoken and they’re not OK with our tax dollars going to this place. That would be the bare minimum.”
Gerritse also wants to see the school shut down for good.
“I would like it if they just shut down. I would really like if that building was just repurposed. I don’t think it’s meant to be a school,” she added.
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