Basia Halliop

I don't think I would feel capable of teaching a class with an adult student in it who directly went against what I told them to do that way (kids are a little different, a certain amount of immaturity comes with the territory with them, plus they're tiny so you always have a way to stop them in an emergency if it comes to that). But an adult???? I wouldn't feel confident that I could teach my class and give the junior students a safe and productive learning environment.

For one thing I want to be able to teach the students and help them learn, that's the point, and secondly in the extreme, I need to know that if I say 'stop, that's unsafe, let me show you how to do it safely' I have the ability to stop anyone in the class immediately!

So, I'm pretty sure if it was me if I asked him once or twice directly to stop doing something and he didn't, I'd refuse to have him on the mat while I was teaching, and if necessarily politely tell Sensei that I could not teach that particular person. If my teacher wanted to ask someone else to teach the class in that case, then OK, I would deal with that.

But if I'm teaching a class I feel responsible to the beginners to make sure they're safe and learning, and I'm not willing to take that responsibility without the ability to do it.

IMO there's way too much concern about ONE person who clearly doesn't care about your concern anyway, and not nearly enough concern for all the junior students who are being harmed here and who have to put up with him all the time. Getting senior students to babysit him is a partial solution in the short term, but those senior students' time could be far better spent helping people who want to learn. But OK, that's not something you yourself appear to have direct control over, though I think it's important enough to try discussing your thoughts with your Sensei.