Unethical Sensei

This Sensei I know, has a number of levels (Dans), has owned and still does own, Dojo's and is obviously a Master and a Teacher.

This Sensei is well known internationally.

This Sensei drank so much, the liver is ruined.

This Sensei "ran away" and hides, requiring another "friend" Sensei to camouflage the conditions and crimes.

This Sensei abused another who was obviously less skilled, to a point the "victim" could have been treated in a hospital. The Sensei would have been immediately arrested by any authority of any land and punished.

This Sensei's level of responsibility is such that he blamed the victim, saying such, "Look at what you made me do!" when the victim, clearly, couldn't have come close to offending this Sensei.

I'd like to know if people who study Aikido, cover eac h other's ass, or, is their a place one can go to blow a whistle.

Please help. This is all true.

Daddaroo

If there is a crime to report, you call the police.

If the person is a member of a particular aikido organization and you have evidence of clearly unethical behavior, you can report what you know to a ranking person of that larger organization- the head of the organization or the secretary, etc.

However...
A person who has "ruined" his liver has not broken any laws or necessarily harmed anybody other then him or herself. Don't think it's proper? Then don't train under the person.

A victim who "could" go to the hospital? People "can" go the hospital if they accidentally sprain a wrist in a badly applied nikkyo. Did the injured person seek treatment, stop training, report the incident to either the police or another person in authority? If not, is it your place to?

Not denying your experience, just trying to examine perspective and clarify what you are seeking from this site.

Robert Williamson wrote: This Sensei I know, has a number of levels (Dans), has owned and still does own, Dojo's and is obviously a Master and a Teacher. This Sensei is well known internationally. This Sensei drank so much, the liver is ruined. This Sensei "ran away" and hides, requiring another "friend" Sensei to camouflage the conditions and crimes. This Sensei abused another who was obviously less skilled, to a point the "victim" could have been treated in a hospital. The Sensei would have been immediately arrested by any authority of any land and punished. This Sensei's level of responsibility is such that he blamed the victim, saying such, "Look at what you made me do!" when the victim, clearly, couldn't have come close to offending this Sensei. I'd like to know if people who study Aikido, cover eac h other's ass, or, is their a place one can go to blow a whistle. Please help. This is all true. Daddar oo

Dear Robert,
First things first.1.The Sensei ruining his liver.Thats his choice.You might think this is not something a sensei should do , but thats your own view.This point is not you affair.
2.How do you define abuse? You state the sensei abused a student .Did the student lodge a complaint , phone the police or take any legal action of any sort? Did the student walk off the mat?
If not , again, while I realise your concern for others, I think its not your responsibility .Each person doing Aikido gets thrown around and their bodies can be put through a bit of pain at times.Each person can choose whether or not to accept or reject what is being done to them by a teacher.
3.What do you mean by the Sensei running away , to hide his condition and crimes?Has the Sensei been charged by the police for assault? Are there charges pending? Has the victim [the student ] taken any action of any sort against the teacher? If not the teacher is not a criminal .He might well be insensitive to his student but is this criminal? If the Sensei has got liver damage, i see no reason why he cannot ask another Sensei to take on his workload if he is feeling poorly.apart from that the deputy 'friend'Sensei could refuse to 'cover up 'for the Sensei in question.
4.The phrase 'Look what you made me do'. How many times do people say this.I say it all the time to my missus when I mess up with something. Sounds like the sensei may well have felt a bit of guilt , and tried to shift the blame .On this part I do agree that one would expect a sensei to act more honourably.
Cover ups?Cover ups take place in every walk of life? If someone makes a blunder of gigantic proportions, do the people who make the blunder accept responsibility?Do politicians accept the blame for messing up , starting wars, getting the economy into trouble?No , the politicians blame everybody but themselves.So whats new?? Pass the parcel is standard procedure when mistakes are made.Sad but true.Not many people nowadays in authority positions put their hands up and say, 'I /We dropped a clanger /F.....d up'.
Who do you run to to report what your talking about? I think you would have a hard time proving that a crime had been done.Has the group got an Statement of Ethics policy? If so refer the actions of the Sensei to the guys who are in charge of this section and see what transpires.Then again if the student is not complaining I think you [assuming you made the complaint on behalf of the student ] you would get no where.
Just my views here. The line between hard /severe practice and assault imo can be quite thin on the odd occasion.
Cheers, Joe

This great man, this Sensei doesn't need the police. He needs a friend. Some one that has authority over him within the international Aikido assembly.

I wholeheartedly disagree with the implication this is none of my business, nor yours. It is ours.

I would be happy to send some credentials if you give me yours and a resume if you use one, or a friend I can ask about you.

Daddaroo

If you are looking for someone with authority over him, you would need to tell us what organization(s) he belongs to. No point asking a Yoshinkan person to do something about a Ki Society sensei, for instance.

Robert Williamson wrote: This great man, this Sensei doesn't need the police. He needs a friend. Some one that has authority over him within the international Aikido assembly. Daddaroo

I would echo what Robin said - there is no such thing as (and never has been) any "international Aikido assembly". I don't think that it is the place of anyone on this forum to pull rank on your teacher. This should come from your own organisation.

Alex

Robert Williamson wrote: This great man, this Sensei doesn't need the police. He needs a friend. Some one that has authority over him within the international Aikido assembly.

Those are two different things. Maybe this person needs both. However, we, your audience are neither.

Also, you are surely aware that there is no such organization as "the international Aikido assembly", right? Or perhaps not - you list your dojo as "DNA". Do you train, and simply don't want to disclose your dojo?

Robert Williamson wrote: I wholeheartedly disagree with the implication this is none of my business, nor yours. It is ours.

Since I have no idea who you're talking about, and know nothing about his actions apart from your vague allegations, I fail to see how it can be my business.

I'm also puzzled why you posted this in the Introductions section, but I expect Jun will take care of that.

If he is within an organization like the Yoshinkan, Seidokan, one of the various Aikikai organizations like CAA or ASU or USAF or Birankai or whatever, there is a person in charge of the organization.

There is no unified body over all of aikido. There are individual associations. If this person is in independent, non-affiliated person then there is no recourse within any association.

Not sure why you don't know this or who/how to find this person's affiliation.

You could start a thread on Aikiweb and try to ruin his reputation. Assuming everyone can figure out who you mean. Seriously, we have dojo search, showing all of 3 studios in Eugene, OR. I'm going to guess this has already blown up in your face.

Mary, I'm sorry, I did post this in the Intro section. Funny. It was a mistake.

I tried to fix this by writing his "Seniors" in Japan, I think I said. Joined here hoping I might get a reference or direction. I'm not asking anyone to do something except chat.

When I spoke of an assembly I surely didn't mean an "institutionalized, established, legal" assembly. I'd say all Aiki in the US could be considered one.

But thank you so much. I have no doubt I'll find someone who'll listen, take my info (name, salient info, other stuff), get some one to go and take this man's hand. I won't let him go to waste. That'd be silly. I don't mind being a "No One" who needs help.

We could do that, possibly. I'll get back to you Kind Sir.

Pull rank on a teacher? That's hilarious, can you imagine?

Is that what you thought I was doing?

I thought I was trying to get help for a great man who may be too proud to ask for it himself.

Pull rank on my friend? There's really not too many who could do that in this world and surely none here. You might know where though, or have a clue for me to chase up.

Mary, if I was hurting and told you that, would you just ignore me? You may have misunderstood the meaning of "Ai" and I'm not embarrassed to tell you to find out that. Please don't argue with me about this. Maybe see what it has to do with this. Can't hurt.

I'm in the Eugene area. My friend, nor I are not members of any of these Dojos.

Once again, the idea of doing a humanitarian honest thing to benefit a person even you would admire, would cause such an attack; an explosion in my face {that's dramatic}, I find funny.

Is that something that normally occurs to you, acting out of love and it blows up in your face? Do your matching opponents or enemies blow up in your face? Seriously, I'd like to know. I'd expect you'd blow up in mine and I suppose that's good to know, aye?

I bet he burps, farts, and masturbates, too. Get a rope.

Robert Williamson wrote: This Sensei I know, has a number of levels (Dans), has owned and still does own, Dojo's and is obviously a Master and a Teacher. This Sensei is well known internationally. This Sensei drank so much, the liver is ruined. This Sensei "ran away" and hides, requiring another "friend" Sensei to camouflage the conditions and crimes. This Sensei abused another who was obviously less skilled, to a point the "victim" could have been treated in a hospital. The Sensei would have been immediately arrested by any authority of any land and punished. This Sensei's level of responsibility is such that he blamed the victim, saying such, "Look at what you made me do!" when the victim, clearly, couldn't have come close to offending this Sensei. I'd like to know if people who study Aikido, cover eac h other's ass, or, is their a place one can go to blow a whistle. Please help. This is all true. Daddaroo

Sorry again, that was you, Janet. Get back to you kind Ms.

If you know exactly what this guy need to do to live up to your expectations for an aikido sensei, why dont you go help him?

Robert Williamson wrote: Mary, I'm sorry, I did post this in the Intro section. Funny. It was a mistake. I tried to fix this by writing his "Seniors" in Japan, I think I said. Joined here hoping I might get a reference or direction. I'm not asking anyone to do something except chat. When I spoke of an assembly I surely didn't mean an "institutionalized, established, legal" assembly. I'd say all Aiki in the US could be considered one. But thank you so much. I have no doubt I'll find someone who'll listen, take my info (name, salient info, other stuff), get some one to go and take this man's hand. I won't let him go to waste. That'd be silly. I don't mind being a "No One" who needs help.

You're disrespectful. Do you really think one Human wouldn't know that about another?

What do you mean about the rope?

Is that a question about my morals or abilities? No matter. The answer is none of your business and it's pretty arrogant of you to ask.

You've never trained in Japan, have you?

"Live up to my expectations". You expect anything of a Sensei and if so, did you make those expectations up or were you taught them?

"is their (sic) a place where someone can go to blow the whistle?" That somehow just doesn't sound like a person seeking help for another who is having serious problems, but more like someone trying to cause that person problems - deserved or undeserved. Maybe it is just a language thing, maybe you wrote it too fast, and maybe I just misinterpreted what you were trying to say.

If this instructor is close to you and alcohol is his problem, perhaps contact your local Al-Anon chapter. They usually will have some really good ideas about dealing with an alcoholic and may be of help.

I can think of several sensei (including a really really important one) who toasted their livers in one way or another. Is that the basis for you calling this sensei unethical? It is a pretty weak basis, in my opinion. You may as well string that sensei (and a whole lot of other sensei) up for the other completely human and virtually unremarkable things that sensei do.

Disrespectful? You're using an international forum to publicly challenge the ethos of someone you call a friend and I'm disrespectful? You dont want to hurt your friend by getting the police involved, but getting the internet involved is ok?

Why not just freaking talk to your friend? Call him on his bullshit, even if he outranks you. Why not talk to his family if he wont listen? Directly and honestly entering into conflict in order to help someone else, especially someone you care about, is a mark of courage, compassion, strength and kindness. Isn't that what being a martial artist is supposed to be, a person who enters conflict to help others?

Robert Williamson wrote: You're disrespectful. Do you really think one Human wouldn't know that about another? What do you mean about the rope?

Robert Williamson wrote: Is that a question about my morals or abilities? No matter. The answer is none of your business and it's pretty arrogant of you to ask. You've never trained in Japan, have you?

It would really help the convo if you quoted the people you are responding to, so that we know what you are talking about.

What does training in Japan have to do with any of this?

Yes. I expect the sensei I choose to train with to be good (better than I am) at the art they are teaching, and to be good at teaching. Pretty tall order, I'm not going to be too uptight about their personal foibles. I will train with the people I want to train with, and that's about as far as it goes.

If I do run up against a sensei whose behavior I cannot tolerate (and I tolerate sensei's flaws exactly as much or as little as I would any other person's) I vote with my feet, notify authorities, or confront the sensei directly. I wouldn't flail about on the world wide web throwing their dirty laundry everywhere for all to see.

Robert Williamson wrote: "Live up to my expectations". You expect anything of a Sensei and if so, did you make those expectations up or were you taught them?

I'll see you folks later, maybe.