
Bre McAdam
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
A 44-year-old woman accused of assaulting a child at a private Saskatoon Christian school earlier this year has completed mediation.
Saskatoon provincial court confirmed Terra MacEwan’s assault with a weapon charge was withdrawn as a result.
According to media reports, a seven-year-old boy who has autism told his mother that his head hurt after his teacher hit him twice with a baton for not listening during class.
MacEwan, an educational assistant, was charged in September after a complaint was made about the incident, which happened in May. At the time, the school was called Legacy Christian Academy. It has since been renamed to Valour Academy.
Mediation is done through the alternative measures program, an out-of-court process that looks at appropriate resolutions — often agreed upon by the victim and accused — that acknowledge the harm done. Reparations can include apology letters, financial compensation or community service.
The specifics are kept confidential to encourage participation, the Saskatoon Community Mediation Services website states. While mediation doesn’t require a guilty plea, it does require an acceptance of responsibility. People who go through mediation aren’t left with a criminal record.
Legacy Christian Academy has been at the centre of assault and sexual assault allegations since 2022, when several former administrators were charged with historical offences during their time at the school, then called Christian Centre Academy.
Former students also filed a $25-million class action lawsuit alleging the school and its parent church perpetrated and allowed the spanking of students, fondling of minors by church staff, and other physical, psychological and sexual abuse.
During former director John Olubobokun’s assault with a weapon trial, students testified they were hit with wooden paddles, sometimes until they broke, as “scriptural discipline” at school.
The trial, which began in June in Saskatoon provincial court, has been adjourned for defence evidence.
Former principal Duff Friesen and former director Ken Schultz are still before the court. Schultz, 75, is charged with multiple counts of sexual assault and assault with a weapon. Friesen is charged with 11 counts of assault with a weapon.
In January, former athletics director Aaron Benneweis was sentenced to two years less a day for sexually assaulting and exploiting a student between 2008 and 2012, when she was between 13 and 16 years old.