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Now, Gothamist frequently thinks we live in an overly litigious society...until we read about some lawsuit that is just awesome. A Midtown karate school is being sued for injuring a student. In 2003, student-instructor took over a class at Anderson's Martial Arts school and kicked Jonah Stevens, who was then a 17 year old, in the face - only to break Stevens' jaw during practice. Yikes! Stevens' lawyer says that his client required extensive dental work and is permanently injured. The Post couldn't get in touch with the dojo or the instructor for a comment, but what can they really say? They were sparring with a teenaged boy who probably seemed tough enough? We wonder if the dojo would try to use the "you're not supposed to walk into the kick" defense, but still - even though you're supposed to be humiliated at karate class, your instructors should have enough of a light touch to only take the wind out of you, not sock you silly.
Maybe Kramer had it right: Maybe we adults should go to dojo with children students so we can beat them up.
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Heh heh heh... chop suey!
I'm reminded of The Seinfeld episode, "The Foundation" where Keramer goes to a a Kiddie Karate class...
Wow. I went to this dojo actually and while I never experienced this level of hurt, I do remember questioning some of the practices at this school.
A lot of Martial Arts schools are pretty hard core and I don't have any problem with getting pretty bruised up, one of the reasons I left was that I questioned their safety precautions after a few classes in which things happened such as 1) I was taught to do standing over-the-head throws without instructors checking if I knew how to fall (I did, but...) 2) during a testing period, a fellow classmate was kicked so many times in his thigh that it was entirely purple and the bruise was so deep that over the course of the next weeks migrated down his leg.
Oh, and the time people were doing drills with real knives.
There's no point in being macho over being safe, IMO.
toby, i went to that dojo for a little while too.
it was way too f---ed up and macho for me.
no safety precautions and a very young sifu who seemed more concerned with money than real training.
i saw students get injured every time i went to class there.
that dojo pretends to be a jkd center, but its really a bunch of yahoos running the place.
hope they lose their dojo and get shut down.
it was all about irresponsible fighting there.
People may have been doing drills with real knives, Toby, but it wasn't you. It was the advanced students in an advanced class, so don't make it sound as if you were somehow at risk. They practice Kali there, which is a weapon-based system that uses blades. Do you get freaked out when someone at a shooting range uses real guns?
The "young" instructor has over fifteen years experience, many ring fights, and is a full instructor under Dan Inosanto, and in several other arts as well. That's more than most instructors twice his age ever accomplish. And he genuinely wants people to become better martial artists, which is just about the best thing you can say about a teacher.
The claim that students get injured every day at the school is horseshit. There are most definitely safety precautions for the students, and considering the physical nature of the arts we practice and the level of contact that occurs during training and sparring, I'm consistently impressed with the sportsmanship and cooperation of the students. And the school produces talented, well-rounded fighters.
You're only hearing one side (the plaintiff’s) of the story here since all the info came from the paperwork they filed. The other side of the story will come out in court, if the case ever makes it that far.
AMA is a practical sparring school, no different from a boxing gym. They train for full-contact fights (no holds barred, muay thai, boxing, etc.), and many of the students go on to fight in the ring. Everyone knows this when they start there, and to act shocked -shocked!- by it afterwards is asinine.
And I seriously doubt either of you left because of so-called safety concerns. This kind of serious training is hard, and not everyone is up for it. But taking anonymous cheap shots on a message board is much easier, right?