Former Christian Centre Academy students testify director paddled them as ‘scriptural punishment’

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Three brothers told a Saskatoon courtroom about being hit with a wooden paddle as a form of “corporal” and “scriptural” punishment while they were students at a private Christian school in the early 2000s.

Cody Nolin, 35, Cole Nolin, 33, and Coy Nolin, 36, said they were paddled numerous times while attending the school, which was called Christian Centre Academy when John Olubobokun became the school’s director in 2003.

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Olubobokun, 63, is charged with nine counts of assaulting former students with a weapon — a paddle. His trial began Monday at Saskatoon provincial court.

He is one of four ex-administrators charged in 2023 with historical assaults after former students filed a $25 million class action lawsuit alleging physical and sexual abuse at the school that was renamed Legacy Christian Academy.

The brothers testified they started going to the school, which had levels instead of a grade system and supervisors instead of teachers, after their parents divorced. Their cousins also went there and it offered support to their single mother.

Court heard students were “self taught” through Christian curriculum workbooks that they would also self-mark. A supervisor would oversee their work. The witnesses said they worked on their books in cubicles facing the wall.

Cody testified first about being excommunicated when he was 14 because he refused to be hit with a paddle, a form of punishment doled out at the school along with demerits and cautions.

He said the affiliated church, then Saskatoon Christian Centre and since renamed Mile Two Church, even sold the paddles to parents to use on their kids at home, which the brothers described as being four to six inches wide and an inch thick.

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Court heard the paddling often happened in Olubobokun’s office with a witness present.

Cody said he was told he couldn’t contact his siblings unless he accepted a beating for swearing. He had been sent away to live with his father in B.C. Members weren’t allowed to associate with anyone outside of the church, and couldn’t listen to secular music, watch secular movies or read secular books, witnesses testified. 

Cody said he came back to Saskatoon in August 2003 and was sent to meet with Olubobokun, who had taken over as the school’s director.

He said he had been hit with a paddle before by different administrators, and had knots in his stomach because he knew what was coming.

Olubobokun told him to stand up and lean forward on his desk, Cody testified.

“I swear he raised that thing to the roof and then brought it down on my backside.”

When he didn’t cry, Olubobokun accused him of “padding” his pants and hit him twice more, he said. Cody testified that kids were hit so often they would wear an extra pair of underwear to soften the blow.

Cody said he hadn’t padded himself this time. He testified that Olubobokun told his youth pastor to take him to the bathroom to check his pants because he didn’t believe him.

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Cody said he walked out of the school in “a moment of clarity” and never returned. He went to a new school, and when he tried to see his siblings, they told him to go away so they wouldn’t get in trouble, he testified.

“That’s all I had, was my siblings, my family.”

His younger brother Cole testified that Olubobokun paddled him hundreds of times. He said the swings weren’t always accurate; he was often covered in bruises and sometimes the paddle would break. He was 12 years old. 

The punishment was for “deliberate disobedience,” which included not doing his homework, singing out of turn and forging his mother’s signature, Cole told court. 

He said Olubobokun placed his hand on his lower back and hit him three times on several occasions, got angry when he didn’t cry, accused him of not accepting his discipline and hit him twice more.

He also described Olubobokun coming to his home and hitting him with a paddle for not completing his daily devotions. That was the last paddling he got, he testified. 

Coy, the oldest brother, testified that Olubobokun came to visit him while he was hospitalized for a few weeks in the 2003-04 school year, when he was 15 or 16. He said he was overwhelmed and told him to leave. 

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Hospital staff had to forcefully remove Olubobokun, Coy said.

He was told he had to get spanked before he went back to school for a rumour he was accused of starting before he was hospitalized, and for disrespecting authority while hospitalized, he testified. 

Coy told court he received six “swats” — three for each infraction. The hits were hard enough to thrust him forward, he said, holding back tears.

He testified that during another meeting, Olubobokun told him that a male student came forward to confess that he had been in a sexual relationship with Coy, and that Coy was “the sinner.”

He said he admitted it was true, and fled after the meeting. Olubobokun later asked him if he wanted help with his “problem,” and Coy said yes because “My entire life was up in the air” and he didn’t want to be excommunicated like his brother.

He was hit again three times with his mom’s paddle at his home, Coy testified. He said Olubobokun then spoke in tongues, telling the demon to get out of him, that he was a “disgusting pervert,” and that they didn’t want him to go to hell.  

He said he played along because he knew that’s what they wanted him to do.  

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Coy said he was then told he would be sent to an Edmonton church that could help him with his problem. That was the last straw for his mother, and the last time he saw Olubobokun, Coy told court. 

Noah Dimitrie, 27, and Nolan Blackstock, 37, testified on Monday afternoon. Dimitrie said he attended the school from Kindergarten to the equivalent of Grade 9.

He testified that Olubobokun paddled him five or six times in his office. He said Olubobokun would often recite a Bible passage while doing so, and that other people were in the room when it happened.

Under cross-examination, defence lawyer Daniel Tangjerd asked Dimitrie why he came forward now. Dimitrie said he’d heard there was a group of survivors who were making police statements, and that he never believed there would be any justice if he came forward alone.

He told Tangjerd that his mother told him Olubobokun and the school had parted ways in 2007 over a “philosophical difference” when it came to corporal punishment.

Tangjerd questioned the reliability of Dimitrie’s childhood memories. Dimitrie said the spankings stood out “vividly.”

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Blackstock said he was hit numerous times while he was a student at the school from Kindergarten until graduating from the equivalent of Grade 12 in 2005.

He said he was often punished for having a “spirit of rebellion.” In one incident, he recalled Olubobokun hitting him five times. He testified he was told he was being rebellious when he didn’t cry.

Blackstock said he told Olubobokun that he had broken his arm earlier and if he wanted him to cry he would have to hurt him more than that, so Olubobokun hit him until the paddle broke.

He told court he fell to the ground, crying in pain.

Witnesses also recalled hearing the screams of other children being paddled from outside Olubobokun’s office.

Cross-examination will continue Tuesday morning, when the Crown will continue calling witnesses.

Olubobokun is also charged with four separate counts of assault with a weapon. That trial is scheduled for later this month.

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