Teach / No Teach Decision

[MASIsshinryu]

Please forgive me if this thread appears elsewhere, I am relatively new to KF.

 

Are there certain things you look for as an instructor, which cause you to choose not to accept a given potential student? If so, do you actively screen for these criteria?

 

Example: (Yes, this is purely hypothetical) Two prospective students separately stop by your dojo to get tours, and be interviewed by you. Both are very polite, and seem to have a serious interest in the style, and your described instructional philosophy. Immediately after one of them leaves, the other identified himself as a member of local law enforcement, providing you with proper credentials, and tells you that the person who just left is a known criminal, with a history of arrests and convictions for violent crimes. How would you handle this?

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Hey...this is a GREAT topic!

 

Yes, I screen my students to a point, but not so much at the initial meeting, but asthey enter the class and begin their training.

 

In the scenerio you mentioned, I would look at it this way. if the cop was following up on a violent, freuent offender...then I would use hisjudgement and not allow the offender into my classes. The last thing I want to do is teach someone how to hurt someone more effectively than he already knows how...and has a history of doing so.

 

The main thing I watch out for are bullies. Those people that want to come in and learn how to "kick some a$$!" I turn them around and point them to the door. The other thing I actively watch for is that I have a printout of every registered (and convicted) sexual and violent offender in my area and if a prospective students name appears on that list, I tell them exactly why I am refusing to teach them, and escort them to the door. I know women and children that have been abused, and it inferiorates me to no end!

 

I used to have a sign in my dojo that said: "The owner of this dojo reserves the right to refuse instruction to any person, at any time, for any reason."

[searcher]

Good advice SS. I have used a little survey in the past that has helped me out. It has questions like Have you studied before? If so where and from who? If yes why did you leave? What are your reasons for studying? What do you hope to accomplish while training here?

 

The survey mixed with an observation/evaluation period are the things I have found to work best.

[Squawman]

This is interesting because with in the last couple months I have been asked to do private self-defense lessons for two women that had to goto prison. The first one was sentenced to 6 years for vehicular manslaughter, killing her husband and the driver of the other car. The other lady was in the process of waiting to be sentenced and on partial house arrest. She was accused of sexually attacking a minor and after talking to her it sounds like she is very falsely accused (long story). Anyway, before teaching them I had to kind of search my own ethics and came to the conclusion that the first lady is pretty much paying the price for what she did and the second one is getting screwed by the system, even though she was in the wrong at one point.

 

Both of these women are your typical middle aged mom with kids and jobs and even though I taught them very basic self-defense skills the biggest thing I gave them was sefl-confidence because they were scared to death to be going to prison.

[MASIsshinryu]

How much weight would you give to other opinions of potential students?

 

If it were not a member of the Law Enforcement community that warned you, but instead was:

 

1) An existing student of yours;

 

2) Another potential student, who claims to have been accosted by the person in question;

 

3) Another person off the street, who simply states that they saw the person in question enter your dojo, and wanted to tell you what kind of person he/she is.

 

From Shorinryu Sensei -

The other thing I actively watch for is that I have a printout of every registered (and convicted) sexual and violent offender in my area

 

Although I am familiar with the sex offender databases, how much trouble was it to get a listing of other violent offenders? I work with Law Enforcement agencies, and know how to go through them, but is this publicly posted in your area?

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Although I am familiar with the sex offender databases, how much trouble was it to get a listing of other violent offenders? I work with Law Enforcement agencies, and know how to go through them, but is this publicly posted in your area?

 

I pulled the list off the internet actually. I just went to the webpage where I'd printed off this list last year, and it's a dead link now. I'll hve todo some digging and see what I can find for violent offenders, not just sexual ones.

 

EDIT: Got it

 

http://doj.state.mt.us/svor/

 

In Google, do a search for "violent offenders, (your state)"..maybe other states will come up from that.

[MASIsshinryu]

Outstanding. I am glad that states are choosing to share this information.

 

Thank you for looking for it.