IM Flooring

Allow me to share with you my response to the Customer’s claims as written in their formal complaintFirst, I’d like to be clear that the student wasn’t ‘thrown out’He was offered private classes instead of group classes because I felt it was better for the child and the schoolThrown out means you aren’t welcome here, and thats not what was saidThere are two separate issuesFirst the student’s recent inability to follow the expectations of the class and the second issue is the mothers confrontational attitude and unwillingness to work amicably with usLets address the challenge with the student firstIt is important to know that we do not have a “special needs” class at our location, however we do have one at our other academyWhile we welcome all students, because these are group lessons, there is a basic conduct and expectation to follow the lesson plan and protocolWe have students of all types from the average child to those with multiple challenges, and we accept all of them in our program as long as they are able to function within the group without interruption or impacting the quality of the rest of the student’s respective experiencesThis particular student, attended group classes throughout the week and also supplemented his training on the weekends in a ‘private class’ with one of our instructorsThe student has struggled with focus and following the class structure for some time, and while the mother claims she was unaware of this, my instructors informed me that they have had several conversations regarding these challenges him in the pastParents enroll their children in our program for many reasons, some of which are discipline, structure and self controlThese aren’t just buzzwords we throw around to impress parents, but instead the actual culture and expectations of our studentsTo instill these values, we have a specific protocol we expect in our classesObviously, the younger the student and the lower in rank, the expectations are adjusted, Our objective is to have a healthy balance of structure and fun so kids love the classes and parents love what they are learningIn recent months, I was informed by my team of instructors that the child’s conduct and ability to demonstrate even the most simple tasks ielining up, have become more and more of a challengeEvery class he would cry (for more than min as stated in the complaint), and it often happened more than one time a class if something triggered himIt was at this point, and after much deliberation among the instructors, that I recommended moving him up to the next classWhile this new class would have higher belts, it would be a class he would naturally advance into within the year anywayI made this judgement call because I felt that he needed a stronger figurehead and instructor which would be the case in the recommended classWhile the instructor who was teaching his current class is a fine instructor, I felt in my professional experience of over years teaching, that the other, more seasoned instructor, was more equipped to get the student back on track and help him manage his challenges in addition to keeping the experience of the other students in tactUnfortunately, the mother didn’t trust my professional recommendationShe clearly loves her son very much, but lacked trust in our judgement to do what is right for himShe was concerned with this impacting him negatively and also how the other moms might respond by talking/gossipingAgain, there is zero doubt in my mind that she loves him very much but her protective approach became an obstacle because our decisions were questioned at every turnAnd in explaining to her that this current situation wasn’t serving her son, nor was it whats best for the class, she took offenseI did explain that her son was a distraction, which I stand byLet me be 100% clear, I absolutely understand it is not within his controlAnd I am absolutely sympathetic to how challenging it must beAll of which I shared with her in our phone callBut his breakdowns due to him not being “first on line”, or if a drill is too challenging, can’t derail the momentum of the instructors and the other kidsI didn’t refer to her son as an infant, however, because she didn’t see how distracting his behavior is to the group, I made the analogy that even a young infant who can’t control themselves would still be a distraction if they cried throughout a classIn retrospect, maybe she wanted me to say that his “behavior” was distracting and not so much himWhich is ultimately what I was suggestingSemantics in my opinionThere is nothing personal about my analogy nor any attack unless you are looking for oneI would never be so insensitive as to refer to a child who has emotional challenges as infantileThe truth is that the student has progressively declined in his ability to show good effort, good attitude, and ability to follow alongall of which is expected and required at our schoolAnd certainly, it is expected of someone who has trained as long as he hasGranted, I know it is beyond his control, however that doesn’t make the above statement any less trueThe Mother informed us that she discovered he was recently diagnosed with Aspergers and also said she “forgot to mention” that he has anxiety issuesThis points out how she tends to minimize/hide the situationIm sure it was due to her concern of her son being treated differently, however not informing us of the diagnosis sets everyone up for failureHer informing us of this condition wasn’t initiated by herInstead this came to light when we addressed his challenge in the classIt was only then that she opened up to usHis anxiety issues and Aspergers are both awfully unfortunate, but this recent diagnosis does not by any means make him unacceptable or unqualified to be a member at our academyJust to be clear, we communicated to her his inability to follow along before she gave us his diagnosis, so this isnt a new situationI understand why the Mom would want to avoid the labels that comes with certain diagnosis, but we knew from the beginning of his membership that the student struggled with focus and anxiety from our years working with childrenThe recent diagnosis isn’t the issue, his recent lack of ability to follow along and distracting behavior isAs far as the discrimination and witch huntWe don’t discriminate against anyoneWe are a small family business and don’t believe in any type of discriminationMy wife and I are a mixed race couple, I have gay families in our school and on my staff, we have students with all types of conditions, etcAs odd as it might be for you to read that, imagine how disappointing it is to me to have to write itas if, I have to prove that I am a fair person who believes in equal rights for everyoneWe don’t discriminate against anyoneI have dealt with kids who have been victims of physical violence, mental abuse, ADHD, obesity, and moreAll that I ask is for a cooperative parent who trusts us and for the child to be able to follow the group class without impacting the experience of othersNow lets address our inability to work effectively with the motherIn our weekly meetings, it was commonly understood that she was one of those parents that was a challenge to deal withSimple things like when we called several times to have an open and honest discussion with her but she refused to answer because “I don’t accept calls I’m not expecting.” Or the time she told a staff member “and next time I’m in, don’t try to pull me in the office to talk about this”While she explained her perspective later on that she is busy and can’t take calls, and that when she comes she has a young child preventing us from having a brief discussion in private, we don’t believe that these justifications fully explain her behaviorUltimately my staff described the Mom as being “difficult,” Her adversarial attitude in our school became unhealthy with unnecessary tension and was also counterproductive to her sonWe are all busy and I have other students with more challenges than her sonBut, we are able to work well with those families because the parents are on the same page as the instructorsI have tons of patience with our young students, but don’t have much patience for parents who create unnecessary tension and are uncooperativeAgain we are a small business and I cant have it where myself or my instructors feel uneasy in our workplaceWhile we may not be perfect, our reputation in the community as a school that loves teaching kids, and creating a positive empowering environment for all is well knownThe issue at hand is a result of the mother being unwilling to trust us as professionals, her adversarial demeanor and her being uncooperativeIt was at the end my final conversation with the mother, that I recommended what I feel was a “win-win”I recognized that bringing the student to more classes would only further perpetuated the negative pattern and behaviorIt was clear to me, that him just coming to more classes wasn’t the solutionBesides it being a distraction for the other students in the class, it was damaging to the studentHow good can it be for him to come to a class 2-3x a week and go through crying outbursts multiple times only to leave making no progress? So I recommended that he should continue as a private student for nowAfter speaking to the instructor who was teaching him in hisSunday private lessons, I was informed that the student performed much better where the focus was all on him and pace of the class could be adjusted based on how the individual was performing that dayThe short term goal would be for us to get him to stop having the breakdowns, and the long term goal (which was communicated by me to the mother) would be for us to reevaluate the student in months or so to see if he had moved passed this phase and was then ready to be reintroduced to the group settingHonestly, this would also mean that we would have minimal interaction with the mother which was a relief to my team of instructorsThey informed me on several occasions that her demeanor and unwillingness to work with us made them uncomfortable and uneasyI know the Mother loves her son very much and works very hard to manage him and his conditionsBut I feel she is so defensive and confrontational at times that she pushes away even the people who are on her side and have her sons best interest, iemy instructorsSo in conclusion, we have a student who has some challenges that has progressively become an issue as time has passedHis outbursts became a distraction for the class and weren’t healthy for him, in my opinionMartial Arts are supposed to be a positive experience that empowers the individual, builds their confidence, and teaches us to develop a positive outlook on lifeUnfortunately, due to conditions beyond the child’s control, this wasn’t his experience in recent monthsNot only weren’t the classes helping him, I believe taking class was becoming a negative experienceIn addition, we have a mom with a strong personality who was confrontational at times, questioned every decision we made and made my staff feel uneasy which impacted the positive and upbeat culture that we have worked so hard to build and why we are so respected in the communityThe student was not ‘thrown out’ and we weren’t discriminating against himAgain, we have hundreds of other students, many of whom have various challengesAll are welcome, but we need the parents on the same page as us, and the child needs to perform at a minimal level in ability and conductThe parent is correct in that there are many martial art schools in our community, and we are disappointed that our school wasn’t a good fit for their familyWe hope for the absolute best in his future training and wish their family the best as wellPS- This complaint is assigned to the wrong locationWe have two locationsThe student was enrolled and training at this location which is our headquarters: Elite Martial Arts Academy [redacted] *** [redacted]

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:The information provided by the business is based on lies and misinformation. I have never accused the business, or its owner, of being discriminatory against interracial couples or gay people. In fact, it is insulting as well as ignorant for him to mention that he is in an interracial marriage and has gay friends. I am not here to school him or anyone on why that is ignorant but it is clear, at a minimum, that bringing up those topics is completely irrelevant to the issues I have expressed with this owner and business.The fact of the matter is that I had been paying for and bringing my some consistently 3-times per week to classes at this business and never had an issue with any instructor that was not amicably resolved quickly and swiftly. In fact, there was only one time I had a poor conversation with Sensei Hany and I immediately apologized for my part. Regardless, the owner of this business does not know my son and cannot legitimately opine on his participation in classes since the owner has never taught any of the hundreds of classes my son has attended nor has he ever even been present. While I understand he gets information from his staff, he admittedly mistook me for another parent who had various issues with his staff. My son has been awarded stripes and belts on time every time there has been testing and has received various postcards from the staff commending him on his progress and dedication. The one time I asked why Sensi wanted to move him to a different class as opposed to looking to other ways to further motivate him, I was treated as a problem. My son has mild aspergers, at a level that would not and has not been detected or suspected by anyone in the ordinary course of his activities. However, when the karate school was pushing to move him to another class, I decided it was time to tell them so that they understood that a change like that, out of no where, not following the regular order of progression may not be a good situation for my son. Once I mentioned aspergers, I was then told for the FIRST time that my son is a distraction and should not be in a regular class. While the karate school may not have a per se program for children on the spectrum, they most certainly understand that many children are in fact on the spectrum and that many may require minimal accommodations. Even if no accommodation is needed, they should understand that parents and instructors alike should strive to be on the same page in the development of the child.The owner of this business did state that my son is not welcome at the school. The way this was handled is quite frankly at a minimum disappointing but really disgusting. The owner needs to take responsibility for his mistakes, especially because he became heated and nasty to me when he believed he was talking to another parent. And then it went on from there even after I highlighted his mistake. Parents are victims to neighborhood business that cater to children all the time and here is a prime example that should be amplified. Not only was I induced to pay thousands of dollars over the years, the time commitment of a young man goes to waste now because of the inability of a man and his staff to run an appropriate business.I plan to contact other organizations to make sure that others do not end up in the same boat
Regards,
*** ** ***

Allow me to share with you my response to the Customer’s claims as written in their formal complaint. First, I’d like to be clear that the student wasn’t ‘thrown out’. He was offered private classes instead of group classes because I felt it was better for the child and the school. Thrown out means...

you aren’t welcome here, and thats not what was said. There are two separate issues. First the student’s recent inability to follow the expectations of the class and the second issue is the mothers confrontational attitude and unwillingness to work amicably with us. Lets address the challenge with the student first. It is important to know that we do not have a “special needs” class at our location, however we do have one at our other academy. While we welcome all students, because these are group lessons, there is a basic conduct and expectation to follow the lesson plan and protocol. We have students of all types from the average child to those with multiple challenges, and we accept all of them in our program as long as they are able to function within the group without interruption or impacting the quality of the rest of the student’s respective experiences. This particular student, attended group classes throughout the week and also supplemented his training on the weekends in a ‘private class’ with one of our instructors. The student has struggled with focus and following the class structure for some time, and while the mother claims she was unaware of this, my instructors informed me that they have had several conversations regarding these challenges him in the past. Parents enroll their children in our program for many reasons, some of which are discipline, structure and self control. These aren’t just buzzwords we throw around to impress parents, but instead the actual culture and expectations of our students. To instill these values, we have a specific protocol we expect in our classes. Obviously, the younger the student and the lower in rank, the expectations are adjusted, Our objective is to have a healthy balance of structure and fun so kids love the classes and parents love what they are learning. In recent months, I was informed by my team of instructors that the child’s conduct and ability to demonstrate even the most simple tasks ie. lining up, have become more and more of a challenge. Every class he would cry (for more than 4 min as stated in the complaint), and it often happened more than one time a class if something triggered him. It was at this point, and after much deliberation among the instructors, that I recommended moving him up to the next class. While this new class would have higher belts, it would be a class he would naturally advance into within the year anyway. I made this judgement call because I felt that he needed a stronger figurehead and instructor which would be the case in the recommended class. While the instructor who was teaching his current class is a fine instructor, I felt in my professional experience of over 25 years teaching, that the other, more seasoned instructor, was more equipped to get the student back on track and help him manage his challenges in addition to keeping the experience of the other students in tact. Unfortunately, the mother didn’t trust my professional recommendation. She clearly loves her son very much, but lacked trust in our judgement to do what is right for him. She was concerned with this impacting him negatively and also how the other moms might respond by talking/gossiping. Again, there is zero doubt in my mind that she loves him very much but her protective approach became an obstacle because our decisions were questioned at every turn. And in explaining to her that this current situation wasn’t serving her son, nor was it whats best for the class, she took offense. I did explain that her son was a distraction, which I stand by. Let me be 100% clear, I absolutely understand it is not within his control. And I am absolutely sympathetic to how challenging it must be. All of which I shared with her in our phone call. But his breakdowns due to him not being “first on line”, or if a drill is too challenging, can’t derail the momentum of the instructors and the other kids. I didn’t refer to her son as an infant, however, because she didn’t see how distracting his behavior is to the group, I made the analogy that even a young infant who can’t control themselves would still be a distraction if they cried throughout a class. In retrospect, maybe she wanted me to say that his “behavior” was distracting and not so much him. Which is ultimately what I was suggesting. Semantics in my opinion. There is nothing personal about my analogy nor any attack unless you are looking for one. I would never be so insensitive as to refer to a child who has emotional challenges as infantile. The truth is that the student has progressively declined in his ability to show good effort, good attitude, and ability to follow along.... all of which is expected and required at our school. And certainly, it is expected of someone who has trained as long as he has. Granted, I know it is beyond his control, however that doesn’t make the above statement any less true. The Mother informed us that she discovered he was recently diagnosed with Aspergers and also said she “forgot to mention” that he has anxiety issues. This points out how she tends to minimize/hide the situation. Im sure it was due to her concern of her son being treated differently, however not informing us of the diagnosis sets everyone up for failure. Her informing us of this condition wasn’t initiated by her. Instead this came to light when we addressed his challenge in the class. It was only then that she opened up to us. His anxiety issues and Aspergers are both awfully unfortunate, but this recent diagnosis does not by any means make him unacceptable or unqualified to be a member at our academy. Just to be clear, we communicated to her his inability to follow along before she gave us his diagnosis, so this isnt a new situation. I understand why the Mom would want to avoid the labels that comes with certain diagnosis, but we knew from the beginning of his membership that the student struggled with focus and anxiety from our years working with children. The recent diagnosis isn’t the issue, his recent lack of ability to follow along and distracting behavior is. As far as the discrimination and witch hunt. We don’t discriminate against anyone. We are a small family business and don’t believe in any type of discrimination. My wife and I are a mixed race couple, I have gay families in our school and on my staff, we have students with all types of conditions, etc.. As odd as it might be for you to read that, imagine how disappointing it is to me to have to write it... as if, I have to prove that I am a fair person who believes in equal rights for everyone. We don’t discriminate against anyone. I have dealt with kids who have been victims of physical violence, mental abuse, ADHD, obesity, and more. All that I ask is for a cooperative parent who trusts us and for the child to be able to follow the group class without impacting the experience of others. Now lets address our inability to work effectively with the mother. In our weekly meetings, it was commonly understood that she was one of those parents that was a challenge to deal with. Simple things like when we called several times to have an open and honest discussion with her but she refused to answer because “I don’t accept calls I’m not expecting.” Or the time she told a staff member “and next time I’m in, don’t try to pull me in the office to talk about this”. While she explained her perspective later on that she is busy and can’t take calls, and that when she comes she has a young child preventing us from having a brief discussion in private, we don’t believe that these justifications fully explain her behavior. Ultimately my staff described the Mom as being “difficult,” Her adversarial attitude in our school became unhealthy with unnecessary tension and was also counterproductive to her son. We are all busy and I have other students with more challenges than her son. But, we are able to work well with those families because the parents are on the same page as the instructors. I have tons of patience with our young students, but don’t have much patience for parents who create unnecessary tension and are uncooperative. Again we are a small business and I cant have it where myself or my instructors feel uneasy in our workplace. While we may not be perfect, our reputation in the community as a school that loves teaching kids, and creating a positive empowering environment for all is well known. The issue at hand is a result of the mother being unwilling to trust us as professionals, her adversarial demeanor and her being uncooperative. It was at the end my final conversation with the mother, that I recommended what I feel was a “win-win”. I recognized that bringing the student to more classes would only further perpetuated the negative pattern and behavior. It was clear to me, that him just coming to more classes wasn’t the solution. Besides it being a distraction for the other students in the class, it was damaging to the student. How good can it be for him to come to a class 2-3x a week and go through crying outbursts multiple times only to leave making no progress? So I recommended that he should continue as a private student for now. After speaking to the instructor who was teaching him in hisSunday private lessons, I was informed that the student performed much better where the focus was all on him and pace of the class could be adjusted based on how the individual was performing that day. The short term goal would be for us to get him to stop having the breakdowns, and the long term goal (which was communicated by me to the mother) would be for us to reevaluate the student in 6 months or so to see if he had moved passed this phase and was then ready to be reintroduced to the group setting. Honestly, this would also mean that we would have minimal interaction with the mother which was a relief to my team of instructors. They informed me on several occasions that her demeanor and unwillingness to work with us made them uncomfortable and uneasy. I know the Mother loves her son very much and works very hard to manage him and his conditions. But I feel she is so defensive and confrontational at times that she pushes away even the people who are on her side and have her sons best interest, ie. my instructors. So in conclusion, we have a student who has some challenges that has progressively become an issue as time has passed. His outbursts became a distraction for the class and weren’t healthy for him, in my opinion. Martial Arts are supposed to be a positive experience that empowers the individual, builds their confidence, and teaches us to develop a positive outlook on life. Unfortunately, due to conditions beyond the child’s control, this wasn’t his experience in recent months. Not only weren’t the classes helping him, I believe taking class was becoming a negative experience. In addition, we have a mom with a strong personality who was confrontational at times, questioned every decision we made and made my staff feel uneasy which impacted the positive and upbeat culture that we have worked so hard to build and why we are so respected in the community. The student was not ‘thrown out’ and we weren’t discriminating against him. Again, we have hundreds of other students, many of whom have various challenges. All are welcome, but we need the parents on the same page as us, and the child needs to perform at a minimal level in ability and conduct. The parent is correct in that there are many martial art schools in our community, and we are disappointed that our school wasn’t a good fit for their family. We hope for the absolute best in his future training and wish their family the best as well. PS- This complaint is assigned to the wrong location. We have two locations. The student was enrolled and training at this location which is our headquarters: Elite Martial Arts Academy [redacted]