Niagara’s Robert Land Academy closing in June amid abuse allegations

A military-style private boarding school in the Niagara region is permanently shutting down after nearly 47 years in operation.

Robert Land Academy (RLA) in Wellandport has been rocked by allegations of abuse, including student-on-student and in at least one case faculty-on-student.

The all-boys school says on its website the move is due to declining enrollment “driven by rising costs” to attend the academy.

The page reads that they experienced a 44 per cent drop in enrolment.

The Walrus, a Canadian investigative outlet, has been reporting on what they are calling multi-million-dollar lawsuits that allege decades of sexual, physical and emotional abuse.

The Walrus reports that the claims include accusations of restraint, withholding food and intense physical labour.

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Niagara police confirm that 39-year-old Johnathan Jeffrey Ahlstedt of West Lincoln worked at the academy, and was charged with two counts of child luring to facilitate sexual interference through telecommunication and two counts of child luring to facilitate sexual assault through telecommunication.

The lawyer for one of the alleged victims provided a joint statement to CHCH News.

“We have heard from our client, and others, about years of ongoing institutional abuse at the hands of staff and students at Robert Land Academy. We are pleased to hear that RLA will be closing its doors,” Alexi Wood, founding lawyer and partner at St. Lawrence Barristers PC, writes in the statement.

“One of my goals in starting this litigation was to ensure that the abuse at RLA stopped. Now that the school is closing, other children will not suffer as I did,” writes BC, the client of St. Lawrence Barristers PC.

There has been no response from the Robert Land Academy regarding the allegations.

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