Students finish testifying in former Christian school principal assault trial

The Crown has finished calling witnesses in the jury trial for a former Saskatoon Christian school principal facing five counts of assault.

Five former students testified about their claims of physical and mental toll from being hit with a paddle by Duff Arthur Friesen.

“It hurt for the rest of the day, psychologically it hurt for a while after that,” said one complainant who testified they were 11 at the time.

“It wasn’t fast. It was smack, pull back, smack, pull back, smack.”

Multiple former students testified to being called into Friesen’s office, told they were being punished and to bend over with their hands on a chair before being hit three times with a paddle.

Two former students told the court the school sold paddles to parents and that Friesen even offered to teach parents how to paddle their kids.

“I saw the thinnest one and the thickest one,” said the victim.

They described the paddles as approximately 12 inches long, six inches wide and varying in thickness.

Another victim said they were hit so often they thought Friesen “loved it.”

They told the jury they started wearing period pads on days they thought they would be hit so it wouldn’t hurt as much.

Friesen is accused of paddling five students between 1997 and 2007 at Christian Centre Academy, later renamed Legacy Christian Academy, and now known as Valour Academy.

Friesen was found guilty on one count of assault with a weapon, and not guilty of three others, in his last trial.

He received a six-month conditional sentence.

The trial will continue next week when the defence begins its presentation.