If you care about the safety of your child, do not patronize this business. If you wish to trust…read moreyour child with a staff that accepts accountability for accidents if/when they arise, then do not waste your time here. Long story, short, I witnessed my son being kicked and punched several times by another student, and it was never acknowledged or addressed by the staff. When I attempted to make the instructors (and management) aware of this, the response was lackluster at best. Let me paint the full picture of my dismay...
My experience with this business is a classic case of what happens when you don't heed red flags when you should. Let me start by stating how excited I was to learn about Northeast Taekwondo about a year and a half ago. A few of my son's friends (slightly older) had attended and it is very close to our house and school. So after reading the Yelp reviews, I called and spoke to someone who advised me that the 3 year old group was full, and that he would put us on the wait list for when my son got closer to 5 (which was this September). I received a call about a year later, advising me that a spot had opened up, but when I confirmed my son's age (4 at this point), he said that he made a mistake and that we should expect another call in late August or so.
Despite the confusion, we were content, having already enrolled my son in Aikido classes across town. So come early September, since I had not heard from the company, I got proactive and attempted to reach them by phone several times (5-6 times). I left a few messages, and never received a call back. I am a stickler about businesses returning customer inquiries in a timely fashion, so once I did not hear back, I wrote them off as unworthy of my business. A few weeks later, I finally received a call back advising me of open slots and an orientation happening on 9/25. When I advised Mr. O'Kelly of the un-returned calls, he never acknowledged the oversight or apologized; he simply implied that it was my fault by stating that it was best that I email in the future.
Despite these small deals, I decided to still attend the orientation; mainly because of how close the facility is to our home and the kids' school. Right now we travel 30 minutes across town during rush hour, and I was looking to cut down on the commute. I also was excited about the prospects of starting my 3 year old out too. Anyway, we arrived for the orientation, and no one explained that the parents were supposed to sit, while the kids were to gather and participate out on the mats. The staff member who greeted us with the contract saw my son sitting next to me and never suggested he join the group. After a few minutes, when I saw other kids his age participating in street clothes I asked about it and only then was I advised that he should join in. This placed him in the back of class, where the instructors paid little attention to what was going on.
My son ended up lined up next to an unruly child who was running around, being wild and disrupting the class. The instructors spent a lot of time trying to reel him in, but as their attention went back to the older, more skilled kids in the front of the room, they totally missed this child practice-punching and kicking my son. My son calmly asked him to stop, and after doing it a few more times, the unruly child found other ways to get in trouble. But never once did the instructors notice what happened, and address it. Another staff member was discussing payment with us in the back of the room, and when I stood up to address the punching and kicking, he basically ignored me. Because, the other child had ran to the front of the room, and left my son alone, I allowed my son to finish the lesson.
So this was about 20-30 minutes in. The kids continued to do group technique drills and individual strikes on instructors with mats. It was then that I noticed that little to no attention was being paid to the kids in the middle and back of the room, and especially not the kids who were struggling. My son's form or lack of focus at times was never noticed or corrected and I just felt like his needs had fallen through the cracks since he was not either acting bad or overachieving. My husband and I walked away from the experience knowing that we would not be back, especially since our experience at DC Aikido has been the exact opposite. That said, I felt it necessary to bring these issues to the attention of the business owner, who was not present at orientation. So, I emailed him (per his request) and in as nice a way as possible, I voiced my concerns.
Mr. O'Kelly simply stated that "it's not ideal for everyone." He never acknowledged/addressed the real issues at hand - namely the safety of my child, the negligence of his staff, and the promise to do better in the future.
So, my family and I will steer way clear of Northeast Taekwondo and instead spend our time and money patronizing DC Aikido as we have for the past year.
