White Lion Tae Kwon Do Poor training. Had a black belt that appeared on DATELINE NBC as a PEDEFILE!!! Refused to let me out of contract and sent me to collections for protecting my child Ripoff Deltona Florida

 i was simply looking for this schools contact info when i saw some very unusual comments regarding this school! please let me briefly say, i have known Master mattiello and his school since my 28 yr old son was 7 or 8. this is a quality Master as are his black belt instructors. He is ethical and 1st class all the way. i studied several different styles and teach as well. This school put children first. Helped with home work, taught kids respect and discipline and proper manners. Always went the extra mile for kids and parents.

  The fact that a black belt may have been accused of pedophilia on tv has nothing to do with this school, i assure you if there had been an inkling of that activity, it would have been dealt with quickly.

 To suggest that training was low quality is a joke! This school was in tournaments all over the place and their students competing against schools from florida as well as other states,it was rare indeed, if most of the top awards didnt go to white lion students both in forms and combat! Period!. In fact lots of other teachers tried to recruit White Lion Students!  I must point out in competition White Lion students earned their titles and trophies, no freebies for just showing up! Yet it always came down to being successful, by doing ones best, winning was never the yardstick for success. As long as one did their best that was the defining goal.

 My son went from being a picked on child, who was awkward and lacked confidence to a fine young man, who is self confident loving and caring. Yes and more than able to defend himself if that is required.

In summary, i have seen many schools thoughout the years from all over the U.S. , i promise you, if you or some one you love are interested in learning this style,go check out White Lion, after you visit other schools unannounced! The students at White Lion are confident,carining, successful people,most of all they have fun!

is available at the BANK OF AMERICA page of this site. It appears in the comments section to one of the Ripoff Reports.

I know this is a few years late, but I had to respond anyway. I have been in traditional Japanese Karate for close to 30 years, and have seen many "situations" in my short time. Whether it be a DUI issue, sexual offender issue, etc.. the list goes on. One things comes to mind here, we are ALL HUMAN and we ALL MAKE MISTAKES! Period!

In my opinion, the parents that had the issue with their daughter, should have just said "oh well, he's been gone let's forget about it and move on!" I can understand the mother's issue regarding the gentleman in question putting on her daughter's belt, and the fact he was caught on Dateline's "To catch a predator." However, if nothing inappropriate ever happened within the Dojang with this girl and the gentleman in question then GET OVER IT!

Next, my concern is with the fact that Mr. Matiello has been in business for 25 years, I presume TKD this entire period either full or part time, and only having "black belt Bob" as is oldest student with only 3 years under his belt. Something doesn't smell right here.... My Sensei has most of his original students that started with him over 30 years ago. He has lost a few either due to death, differences of opinion, or retirement, but they are still there. This concerns me that "master," "Sir," "Sr. Sir," only has one "long time" student of three years.... Hmmmm???

I must say, that the support Mr. Matiello received from his Dojang regarding this matter, in his defense, is tremendous!

It sounds like this guy needs to learn what a washing machine is used for, and belly up to the bar, and pay his bill. Mr. Matiello obviously has bills to pay in the Dojang!

As before, I will not engage in any personal attack. I will, rather respond to your invitation in ABC order.

A.

The training at White Lion is far from substandard. It is excellent. Master Mattiello is teaching martial arts and much more. His students learn skills that will serve them throughout their lives.

B.

To my knowledge, no one, student or employee, has ever been known to be under investigation while at White Lion. The person in question did turn out to have a previous investigation. That investigation did not involve children and was not known until after the Dateline incident. That information is public record with the Court Clerk of Volusia. All those charges were dropped. Also, Chris, get the facts straight. If he is guilty as he has been charged, that is bad enough. He has not been accused of child molestation. None of the predators on Dateline have been charged with molestation. In fact, once he arrived, he did not enter the house. Again, I do not want to be perceived as defending him. If he is guilty, as it appears, he should be locked up, period. Just get the facts correct. The accusation is bad enough. It is not the acusation you make. It happened long after he left White Lion. Had he done anything to a child at White Lion, I doubt he would have walked out the door. I know he will never walk in again. There is no association between this warped behavior and the school

C.

I do not have any personal knowledge of your discussions with Master Mattiello regarding your contract. I have known him to work with folks who have problems. I also know he has not a lot of patience with people who do not honor their obligations, as honor is one of the importent things he tries to instill in his students. Remember the Tae Kwon Do Code? When one enters into a contract, for a car, for a house, for furniture, for utilities, for any purchase, one has an obligation to fulfill that contract. According to the postings under your sign in, you chose not to honor your contract. So where is YOUR complaint?

I hope this stops soon. Sir runs a wonderful place of caring and learning. He is an awesome teacher. I would not take my children there otherwise. He is not perfect and, like all of us, will make mistakes from time to time. Perhaps this is your time. I don't think it is his.

Now you accuse me of physically threatening you? I never would lower myself to your standards. I simply was stating a fact. Remember your saying to your daughter as we walked out one night "this sparring has to be kept quite from mommy, it's our little secret".if you forgot you said this ask her. You accuse master and myself of "fibbing", but you forgot that you are openly teaching your daughter to hide things from mom, thats good parenting. You keep pointing the finger at me for being the "messenger of the news" on the pedefile, when i remember you saying that you caught the show on t.v. and your wife missed it, remember? we all talked about it and that is bad, because it wasn't our business and as to the issue of attacking my friend, the Detective you mention- he was aware of a old complaint about willy that involved a fellow employee of his, and after it was investigated it was dropped for lack of proof. Do you think that the police investigation should have been exposed when it had nothing to do with our school? I heard about all of this way after dateline, so stick to the facts-which you don't seem to be able to do. Nobody cares who talked about what... they care about you and your wife attacking the school in which we all go to, and master and I have discussed this and he knows what your up to. I could go on and on but you two have proven that your backstabbers and like to twist the facts as to why you got lazy and stopped coming. I wasn't going to even respond, but i wanted to clarify that i didn't threaten you or anybody. I thought we were friends and i hope god blesses you with nothing but joy......:) i just want this to stop

Dear Mrs Sith:
In response to your comment on automatic payments; automatic payments were not started because I never received final approval from you or your husband. I will never charge an account without prior authorization.
Anything else you may have rebutted I will not offer further comment. I stand by my previous posting.
Master Mattiello is an honorable man. White Lion offers great training which has been confirmed by both you and your husband in your postings on this site and others. Below, I have included your husband's exact comments from Yahoo Local.
Latest Review
My rating: Good
American White Lion Tae Kwon
Deltona, FL
Martial Arts
Review Date: 02/02/2007
Great school for children: My daughter and I both attend classes. The adult classes are great for fitness. The children classes are excellent for teaching the children about how to try hard, discipline, and rewarding leadership and good behavior. I recommend this school to anyone in the area.

My wife purchased the sparring gear for my daughter as a birthday gift which is why it was PURPLE!

Also I found out about the willy incident at the same time while you were tellilng us. No one had EVER talked about it at the dojang EVER. the person posting as TKD BOB informed us of everything we know about that whole incident.

For someone calling me out about honesty I would expect you to do the same. Yes it may not make you look so good to your instructor but it's the truth and i'm sure he will understand.

We heard all kinds of gossip while having the house sprayed but this is not the forum to talk about any of those things.

As for the threat of meeting me in public, it's probably not wise to threaten violence in teh same postiong you are talking about litigating in.

Remeber you posted here and I have every right to rebuttal your comments. I did not make pubic the fact that you are the one that told our family about this whole incident which IS what the problem is all about for us until you came out there voicing your opinions and making your own accusations. If you didn't want this to come to light you should not have come out here speaking as you did because I would not have let it out that it was you who told us about this and other details.

I'm more than happy to leave the comments and the reports stand but if people continue to inappropriately come here trying to speak badly of me and my family to discredit the complaint then I have an obligation to rebuttal them... as Mr._______ had the right to come and rebuttal the originall complaint.

Any other comments or attacks on me other than to proove that
A. the training was substandard
B. There was NOT a blackbelt that was known to be a child molester that was under some type of investigation while teaching at the studio
C. that Mr. _______ did attempt to modify the contract that we offered to finish it out.

Then they are in violation of this forum's terms of service.

This has cost many people in our community time, anger, grief, and money! You have issues that go beyond this b.s. guys. You Mrs. ---, have always been against your daughter training, and your husband even hid the fact that he bought gear from us, and hid it at the dojang, and instructed your daughter to lie and hide it from you for weeks, before she spilled the beans and busted herself and him.

You also forgot to mention the fact that you said while i was spraying your house that you were going to use the wylly issue as a threat to us, and i advised you to just settle with sir and drop this -but you just had to go and twist facts and slander all of us- have you lost you minds? you still live in the same community as us and you will end up running into us at the store, etc.. and what are you going to do then? you will be sorry for all of this because i think you are going to be getting sued for all this, and you deserve it.

Unless you have these conversations and facts you claim on tape- you best keep quite. i think you need to stand up to your wife and quite all this. this will definitly be my last posting. and mrs. ---- way to go on twisting up our conversation on the whole thing. your husband knew all the facts already-he just didn't tell you.....

I think this is ridiculous. I would like to clear things up since it is becoming a personal attack on my husband. The reason my child no longer goes there is because I will not let her. I understand that we were under contract and Yes, Sir SR had every right to collect but let me explain

First. The comments made about being irresponsible and not paying on time. That is true. For the first year I asked Ms Betty several times to put us in automatic payment. That is how all our bills get paid because we are very busy. I had even asked Ms Betty to just write my account number down and take the money out every month but for whatever reasons it couldn't be done. Obviously, this issue was not their fault but ours.

Some other lady made a comment about my husband never washing his uniform. That is insane and unnecessary. I washed his uniform several times a week. You guys go there to work out right? So is a grown man who sweats doing something wrong? I'd be more concerned with the 300 pound black belts that were there back then who some how weren't breaking a sweat. What were they there for?

The other ridiculous comment about us not caring about our child because she was picked up late a few times.. well my husband and I both worked about 40 minutes away at the time so traffic sometimes became an issue..

As far as my 2 year old not being able to sit through 2 and a half hours of testing.. I don't think that even deserves a rebuttal. I know that he is too young to be expected to sit through that but my daughter wanted both her parents there so we had to bring him.

Now to the issue on why we quit going. We had no idea about any of the things that were going on until Bob told us. ( I know Bob said to leave him out well he shouldn't have come on here fibbing) Bob came to our house a few weeks before summer started and joked around and told us the story about the child molester and the undercover cop. Please, from a mother's point of view can you understand why this bothered me? The whole time my 7 year old was there, there was a child molester that was bad enough to have a cop watching him for several months. Maybe I over reacted due to personal experience but the ideas went wild in my head what if he decided he liked one of the kids and waited till they were all alone. What if it started a little here then a little there.. Bob also said that he got the truth out of the cop and knew the story well why didn't we? Did we not deserve to know? During this conversation with Bob I told him that I didn't want my daughter going there. My 7 year old over heard me and told Sir SR the next day or so. When he asked me about it (infront of several kids) I didn't want to blurt out what I was angry about which was this new information I had on this child molester person. If he would have taken me aside and talked to me calmly and professionally I would have told him what my concerns were.

My daughter made it very clear that she didn't want to stop going there. My husband and I discussed it and we agreed that she could go to classes with him. I didn't think it would be an issue since she did well on Wednesday's in the adult class. When I spoke to Ms Betty about doing this (without discussing my reasons) she thought it might be ok. Classes were about 180 a month instead of the 250 we were paying for the daycare/pick up.

When my husband didn't show up the next like he was supposed to it was only because something had come up not because we didn't want to go. Sir SR called him and said he wouldn't allow it. That she had to stick with the daycare. I don't understand how it's gotten this out of hand. My daughter would have continued going there probably for several more years because she really did enjoy it. After a few months I probably would have been fine with things going back to normal if Sir would have just worked with us. We offered to continue to allow her going but we agreed it had to be with my husband. I don't think that it would have been that hard for him to work with us. He was more concerned over losing $70 a month that he was willing to lose several more years with our daughter.

My 2 boys started at White LIon with Master Mattiello 15 years ago when they were 3 and 4 years old. I also have 2 daughters that joined, one when she was 23 and the other when she was 13. The 13 year old has a severe learning disability and is very shy. I also started taking classes with my boys. I also have a grandson who started when he was 4 years old. Master Mattiello is one of the best instructors and taught my kids the life skills they still use today. He also worked very patiently with my daughter who had the disability, so that she was able to earn her black belt.

I have worked for White Lion for a number of years in the office doing the billing and setting up agreements. Mr --- was late alot on his payments, but Master Mattiello always worked with him. I have seen alot of students come and go. I also know of a few families that Master Mattiello has helped out over the years. There is 1 student that comes to mind. He was a teenager who was diagnosed with leukemia and Master Mattiello picked this student up from school everyday, gave him his lessons, belt testing, and uniforms for 2 years at no cost to the family. He has also had several people come to him that couldn't afford to come as a family and he would sometimes only charge for one or not charge them at all.

We started to pick up Mr --- daughter in February 2006. He even went on to renew his agreement for another year in February 2007. This was after everything had come out about the pedophile, and that student had left the school 6 or 7 months prior to him ever appearing on Dateline. This person, Willy, was not even an instructor for the school, he was only a black belt student who came with his son. Mr --- never had a problem with this at all. In February 2007 on the company's website he wrote about what a great school this was and what a great instructor that Master Mattiello is.

Mr --- finally contacted me in August 2007 about his payments. We had sent him to collections after several attempts to contact him by phone and mail to settle his balance due. I informed him that we had sent him to collections because he never returned our phone calls. He wanted to work it out and start coming back to classes. He spoke to Master Mattiello and we took him out of collections. He only became concerned for his daughters safety after he found out that he was sent to collections and then he started threating to tell everyone about the Willy thing. Even after we took him out of collections and worked with him he started the threats again and filed this bogus report.

Master Mattiello is a businessman and just like the rest of us needs to make a living. Mr. --- is a very mixed up person. 1 week this is the greatest school around and he would recommend it to everyone. then the next week he gets mad and puts down the school, and all of a sudden he is an expert in martial arts and its teachings. It's a shame to see a grown man who has kids who look up to him act this childish. We have satudents at the school that are much more mature. You can tell this by reading his remarks. Chris grow up, we all have responsibilities. The difference is you are a person that tries to ruin an honest businessman and a very caring person with your untrue statements. I hope it makes you feel better because you can't take resposibility for your own bills. In closing I would like to add that I have seen alot of schools and there is no question that my kids are in the best school around.

This is my opinion as a consumer, instructor and avid martial artist. First of all I would like to give you my back ground. I started martial arts with White Lion Tae Kwon Do as a child with a problem expressing his anger at the ripe age of 5. Master Mat. Was my instructor along with Tony Depalma. I stayed with this school for about 2 years before moving to Morovis, PR. There I learned the art of Olympic style fighting. I stayed there for 2 years and returned to Florida. There I started again with the teachings of Master Mat. and continued for 4-5 years as a student tell I reached 3rd degree. I then started my apprentice as a instructor at the White Lion TKD academy. I quit for the reasons of work and stupidity and trying to enjoy my last 2 years of high school. After graduating HS I again became a student then a part time instructor for White Lion TKD for 3 years. So in total I have had 11-12 years experience and have done martial arts in other schools and styles. I have done Brazilian Ju Jit So, Kung-Fu, Japanese karate, and Iranian martial arts. I was raised as a competitor and through out my career I have received many 1st, 2nd and 3 rd places every time I have competed. My high light of my career as a student was in Puerto Rico where I placed 3rd in sparring in the whole island for junior Olympic try outs. I am also a federal law enforcement officer in a very respected agency.

I think I am well qualified to leave a comment.

I am truly sorry Chris that you feel the way you do towards the White Lion TKD. White Lion TKD is one of the few schools in central Florida that teaches traditional TKD. The master is a over qualified person and very well known in the TKD industries. I am not trying to be biased but it's the honest truth.

You say that the owner of this academy should be conducting background checks on all workers and students? Well I pretty sure that's not allowed to be done on all consumers, but yes on the workers. Also you think people would want to go through the hassle? The instructors there are family orientated and very respectful. Its not fair to the school if one student does something idiotic and the whole school has to pay for it! That's like saying that if I went to a local gym and doing something idiotic on my off time and having the gym pay for my stupidity when they had nothing to do about my personal life!

You say you only trust yourself? Well last time I was in White Lion TKD, Master Mat. had placed a highly valuable tool. He placed at least 8 cameras through out the whole school so no parents could complain about how their children are being treated. This is the only school that I know of up to this day that has their own classes video taped. When I have mentioned this to other masters they have said that was ridiculous and not in order, but Master Mat. wants everyone to be safe and have a good time without any student being a spoiler. When I conducted classes there many parents respected me and the way I treated their children even though I was very strict and hard with the kids.

You also say that you guys tried to work things out and that Master Mat. is a money hungry person. Man you are soo wrong on that statement. I have seen this Master bend over backwords for students that could not afford the schooling or the gear. Here is some quick stories of things I have seen him do in the years I have known him. There was a boy from Pine Ridge High School that wanted to take classes but his parents could not afford it. Master Mat. saw that this kid really was interested so he worked a deal out with this boy. He let the boy pay his monthly fees by doing odd jobs. The boy would cut the grass for the school and even vacuumed inside and cleaned the mirrors. I have seen the Master let a lady slide out of her payments for 3 months tell she got another job. He has done a lot with people when they cant afford martial arts and have ran into some bad times. So please don't be saying he is a money hungry person.

I understand your upset about having that sexual offender put a belt on your child. Ask yourself this question. Has your child ever complained to you about anyone in martial arts before? Did he put the belt on incorrectly while you saw him doing this tradition? The reason I ask is that it's a tradition as students get their black belts their next training is to learn how to communicate with people and learn how to teach. When they get up to 2nd and 3rd dan it is common for them to teach every once in a while to learn how to run a class. It is also tradition that when students graduate to the next level they get their belts put on by higher ranking students or instructors that have helped along the way of their martial arts career. I am pretty sure if you go to another school you'll see the practiced.

He has worked with the community by helping kids straighten up in schools and their life's. I am one of them! With the parents permission he has had communications with certain students teachers to make sure kids are behaving in school and at home. He has also provided other services to the community of Deltona.

This academy has made many model citizens out of kids whom people have given up on, some of the kids I have taught are now finishing school and becoming professionals in many fields. There are plenty of law enforcement mothers and fathers that have gone to this school or their children have. Law enforcement personals have like a six sense on people and can detect fraud pretty quick, wouldn't they have blown a whistle about this academy way before you did?

In all I am not saying you're a dead beat for not paying or trying to get out of an agreement. But I honestly think there is more to your story then your saying. I am not pointing fingers nor am I taking any sides I am just trying to say the facts and what I have seen and experienced and most of the times the reason why students leave the school is because they get grown up and want to hang out with more of their friends. 9 out of 10 they come back and visit Master Mat. and tell him how much he changed their life's and some even end up taking classes again and some bring their children knowing they had a great time when they were with Master Mat. and so should their children.

Thanks for the compliment on our training Chris. We have worked hard and enjoyed every minute of it. We have only ever trained at White Lion.

As far as my son's behavior, the belt taking is a form of behavior modification that I happen to agree with and it has had results. Besides I never said my son was perfect, just your average boy with the heart of a Tiger! Master Mattiello has done a great job at curbing his impulsive behavior without squashing his spirit. Every child should be so lucky to have someone as dedicated as Master Mattiello in their lives.

I am the proud dad of two daughters who have been students of White lion for more than three years. I had the distinct pleasure of seeing my oldest awarded her second degree blackbelt today, along with the son of my friend, tkdmom, who was spoken of poorly by Chris. It is true that the boy in question would lose his belt. What is not mentioned is that the frequency with which his belt was taken steadly decreased as he has grown and matured. It took him longer to reach second degree than it did my daughter, but I cannot help but marvel at the difference the jouney has made in him. He demonstrates much more respect and self discipline. When he is present but not in class, he is much more likely to be working on his homework rather than participating in some activity which would be distractive to those in class. He is but one example of the success of Master Mattiello. Over the years, I have watched Sir, his son, and his staff work with many children and families. I am particularly impressed by the results I have seen with students, child and adult, who are disabled. I watched as Sir's son began with a young child who was disabled He had to assist the student with every stance and movement. There was nothing but patience exhibited with this child. Sir, his son and many others worked with this student over the past couple of years. It is truly remarkable to see this student today and the advances he has made. His forms and movements are now easily the equal of his peers. I expect he will make blackbelt within the next year. Remarkable.

I also know that Sir has assisted many students and families when they have had financial problems. All they had to do was talk to him. I know this only because he has been asked in my presence. He keeps those things confidential, so many people do not know of his kindness in such circumstances.

As for the accused pedophile, I did know him. I was surprised by his arrest. He was not an employee, but another student. As others have stated, he left White Lion months before any of those events. A major portion of the training of higher belts is to learn to pass along what one has learned to other students. My daughter has started this part of her training. He did work with and teach my daughters. Chris fails to mention that he was NEVER alone with children. He only taught in the presence of other adult blackbelt students and employees. In fact, more often than not, another senior blackbelt who happens to be a police officer was present. I have been present for many, many hours when he would be in class. I never saw him act inappropriately with any children. I am not coming to his defense, rather stating that, even if all the accusations are true, it did not happen at White Lion. Sir often has discussions and teaches children how to avoid and how to report any time someone touches them. I have been present for this instruction. It is age appropriate and sound instruction. Along with the watchful eyes of other senior belts, Sir and his staff, and about a dozen cameras simultaneously recording all events, parents are always welcome to watch their children train. I have never seen a parent treated with anything other than a hearty welcome. This is not only good business, but Sir knows it is good for the family as well.

I also know Blackbelt Bob. Over the past years, he and I have become friends. He has assisted both my daughters and has sometimes asked my oldest for her assistance as he has progressed. I was proud to be there when he earned his blackbelt. I admire Bob for his dedication to the art and to Sir. He is a good man. I also know that he actively watches out for the younger students.

I have not previously nor do I now have any reason to feel the least concern for the safety and well being of my young daughters at White Lion. I am proud to know Master Mattiello. Because of their training, I feel my children are safer in any setting than those who have not had the opportunity to learn from Master Mattiello. I am honored by what he has taught my children and others. His students earn their progression. As a teacher, I know many of my colleagues have been impressed by the change in students after they begin studying with Master Mattiello. His lessons reach far beyond the walls of his school. He is a gentleman and a dedicated teacher and a tremendous role model. Sir, should you read this, THANK YOU does not begin to suffice. White Lion is a safe, secure learning environment.

Through out this, I have attempted to report good things about Master Mattiello, his son, his employees and his school rather than attack his attacker. The only thing I will say about Chris is this. Your report and slander of Master Mattiello and his school is nothing short of shameful. Whatever your dirty laundry is, it is not his fault and should not be aired in a public forum. If the negative information on your file were not true and accurate, any attorney in the state would jump to take your case. I suggest you attempt to settle your dispute with Sir. At the very least, you should withdraw from the public forum as it is your reputation and standing that will suffer.

I trust Master Mattiello and his school completely. I have never seen him act unfairly in any circumstance. He has far too much self respect and dignity. I have and continue to recommend White Lion to my friends and to anyone looking for a place to train, learn self respect, discipline, self defense and develop good friendships. I admire Sir for continuing to challenge himself and to improve his school for the benefit of his students, even if that means reading from notes in front of his students. What a good lesson for the students, let's all be lifelong learners. Otherwise, we will be left behind by those who are.

Our society so often looks to place blame on others. If the student does not learn, it may not be the fault of the teacher. Chris, maybe you need to read from some of those papers.

Just a little update about Chris.yes I did say he had some talent what I didn't realize at that time is that he was more talented in prefabricating. If you look on yahoo site, local - and type in american white lion tae kwon do you will see how happy he was with me and what we are doing. I guess back then he was able to make his payments .The article in question was put there at the beginning of February,2007. well after the Willy incident, about the same time he signed up for another year with us. I am sure you will see more of his nonsense and prefabricating as soon he reads this.This will be the last time I will lower myself to his standards. I will no longer answer any of his false accusations.

Just a little update about Chris.yes I did say he had some talent what I didn't realize at that time is that he was more talented in prefabricating. If you look on yahoo site, local - and type in american white lion tae kwon do you will see how happy he was with me and what we are doing. I guess back then he was able to make his payments .The article in question was put there at the beginning of February,2007. well after the Willy incident, about the same time he signed up for another year with us. I am sure you will see more of his nonsense and prefabricating as soon he reads this.This will be the last time I will lower myself to his standards. I will no longer answer any of his false accusations.

Just a little update about Chris.yes I did say he had some talent what I didn't realize at that time is that he was more talented in prefabricating. If you look on yahoo site, local - and type in american white lion tae kwon do you will see how happy he was with me and what we are doing. I guess back then he was able to make his payments .The article in question was put there at the beginning of February,2007. well after the Willy incident, about the same time he signed up for another year with us. I am sure you will see more of his nonsense and prefabricating as soon he reads this.This will be the last time I will lower myself to his standards. I will no longer answer any of his false accusations.

My son started at White Lion Tae Kwon Do in August of 2000. He was in the after school program that was offered by Master Mattiello. Beofre I signed my son up I went to check out the place and was very impressed by the way that the Master made my son feel welcomed. He showed him the studio and then had one of his black belts show my son some moves and kicks. I immediately signed him up. I was working for Volusia County at that time and in January of 2002 I quit working there. I went to Master Matielloi and explained that I might have to take my son out because I couldn't afford to pay his tuition. Master Mattiello said that my son could still come and that he would work with my on his tuition.

It was several months before I was able to pay the full tution amount. All the time I kept up with Master Mattiello and let him know what was going on. I then started to work for Master Mattiello in December of 2003. He let me know that I could have my son and my lessons for free in exchange for driving his van and picking up kids in the after school program. While working for the Master I learned that he is a very kind person and is willing to work with anyone who is honest with him. I had laso learned that he had a student who was diagnosed with leukemia and he had that student going to his school and advancing in belts for no charge to the students family.

As far as the pedifile incident the person in question was a student at the school and was never employed by Master Mattiello. Also the same person was nevere left alone with any of the children, there was always an adult or other parents present. When Master Mattiello found out about this person if anyone asked about it he was very honest with them, and didn't try to hide the truth.

In response to the reading off of papers Master Mattiello had just signed up with another federation and we were all having to learn new forms and their meanings. Master Mattiello was learning as he was trying to teach. He was always saying to the student's bear with me this is all new to me also. I had to leave his employment for a short time due to medical reasons. I am now back with Master Mattiello and you need to understand that he is a business man just like the water company of electric company. If you fail to pay those bills they stop your service, Master Mattiello would still try to work with the parents that were having trouble and still picking up their children everyday.

He always honored his part of the agreement so why should this person not have to honor his part. THis person never voiced any concerns about his daughter coming to the school. In fact this person signed up for another year, even knowing about this pedifile, who had left the school 6 months prior to him being on Dateline. I think this person got in over their head with bills and is trying to make excuses that he had no reason to.

Please don't get me involved in this business dispute . It is between you and master matiello-not us. I talked about the circumstances you mention long after it was common knowledge Chris and you heard it all while standing around after classes with numerous people there- not just me. You can't drive a wedge between Sir's family and myself. He knows this is a sneaky revenge attack for me coming to the defense of our school and Sir's reputation that you continue to try to slander!

In the future please keep me out of all of this. All i ever knew was hearsay and Wiily was never innappropiate around me,abd Sir is the best- so i have don't approve of you trying to use this as an excuse to get out of your bill. I will also be "unemploying" myself from your home spraying because now you have made a personal attack on me and that was not cool. Quite this before it causes someone some real grief.

I would like to update some facts since Mr. Matiello decided to have some of his friends come here and post. some truths and some lies in his defense.

Here are the points I will make speaking only to the facts and not injecting my personal feelings about matters.

1. Black belt bob who posted his rebuttal below happens to be employed by me. He also happens to be the one that informed my family of everything I mentioned in my original report. He informed us that This person whom had contact with my child was arrested on dateline NBC for attempted underage sex. He also informed us that another black belt at the school who happened to be a police officer was supposedly investigating Willy WHILE he was attending White Lion TKD. I have not been able to confirm this as a fact, but Bob did tell us this was so. I found it hard to believe that Mr. Matiello was not aware that or is not know aware that this Willy was under investigation by one of his black belts. HOw is it that black belt bob was or is aware of this and Mr. Matiello isn't? I can only conclude someone is not being truthful about ther knowledge of the extent of this event.

2. Mr. Matiello knows I did in fact offer to return. I offered to continue to allow my daughter to go to their school ONLY on days that I was able to attend with her. This is the truth and if he choses to say otherwise he is flat out lying. He was on speakerphone with me when I said it and have witnesses that can verify it is true. It's true I had lost respect for his school after his son stopped teaching but I did continue to pay and would have out of convenience had this information not surfaced. His son was an excellent teacher and appeared to me to have a very high level of skill in the art. I was saddened at the lack of quality after Mr. Matiello's son left as an instructure and it never returned. While that statement is true it is irrelevant so I won't go any further with that.

The bottom line is that Mr. Matiello was inflexible with altering his agreement with me. This is because he wanted all the money and not just some of it. I may be wrong but I highly doubt it. He was always talking about how he needed more money and he had to charge us for various things because he had to get more money. He stood in front of his class and told everyone the reason he was changing the schedule and adding a martial art such as Tai Chi to his school was to make more money since he had too many kids leave his school. THese are words he spoke out of his own mouth. I did attend one of these classes but never returned when I realised Iknow more about the art he was "teaching" than he did, and I have no formal training in Tai Chi whatsoever.

He frequently told his students that they had to test and Pay for test whether they felt they were ready for it or not. He said that he needed the money and this was just another way for him to get more of it.

3. Regarding the person that attacked my two year old son. I don't even think there is anything you can say about that, lol.

4. Mr. Matiello personally told me that he thought I had a great talent and commitment to the martial arts. Both he and his entire staff including his son OFTEN told me that my daughter was one of their better most well behaved students.

5. TO the last woman that claims Mr. Matiello helped her son so much. I do have great respect for this mother whom I know. She was one of the people that actually went there to train. Where as some other people get caught up in the idea of becoming a blackbelt and somehow automatically becoming a good martial artist, she clearly was dedicated to improving herself and her skill.. even though those around her (often including the trainer) didn't seem to have the same dedication.

I don't know about Mr. Matiello changeing her son however because his black belt rutinlnely took the childs belt away for days at a time somethimes. This is done when children misbehave in class and was regularly done to her child. I will say that he did have a high level understanding of the art which I respected for a child his age. He was superior in many skills to some adult black belts at this school, which I can only assume he was trained some where else prior to attending white lion TKD.

6. Regading Mr. Matiello's claim that the better business bureau found in his favor I would say otherwise. THey informed me that it was noted that I offered to alter the contract to finish it out and that he refused to do so. It also stated that they have to rely on the businesses to do what is best and right and they can't control their bad decisions. Here is some of the exact wording they provided me in their final report:

"We have reviewed the company's response and the information contained in your complaint, and have noted that the company did not offer an adjustment.

The BBB relies on the voluntary cooperation of business to act responsibly, to make adjustment in the interest of fairness and good customer service."

They can't police bad customer service and referred me at least 15 other numbers to various agency I can contact to continue to seek restitution if I chose.

So I think Mr. Matiello's response that they found "in his favor" is somewhat subjective.

To recap the bottom line is that my family's safety comes first. I offered to continue paying and attending under the condition that my daughter be personally supervised by me when she attends. He felt that was unacceptable which is why he wants to "take it as far as I want to" as he said. This is a legitimate report on this business owner nothing claimed is false to my knowledge. Granted the most outrageous information is second hand but I did confirm that Black belt bob's information was correct in at least that Willy was in fact on Dateline NBC. I have assumed the other information he provided was true as well.

IF your in the Deltona area I can refer you to several schools. Just do a lookup on the internet and show up unannounced to see how things really are run. Do yourself a favor and avoid the drama of White Lion TKD. Learn from my mistakes.

How to respond to this absolute nonsense of a complaint? There are so many falsities, that this so called man has stated in his report it is hard to know where to begin.

I may start by stating my interest in this posting. My family has been in attendance at this great facility for more than four years. In that time my son has gone from an out of control and impulsive 5 year old to a responsible respectful 10 year old. His behavior was so out of control that the first martial arts studio we attended asked that I pull him out after only one month. They could not / would not help him. When I came to Master Matiello I was at my wits end and he promised me he had never given up on a student and he would never give up on my son. I can tell you Master has lived up to his promise tenfold. My son is now an A-B student and has turned into a polite young man. (Ok most of the time, after all he is a 10 year old boy, not a pod person!)

The training at White Lion is excellent to say the least. Learning from Master Matiello and his more than 40 years of experience has been invaluable. Sithburne stated that instructors referenced papers. Well when the entire school is learning a whole new set of forms never seen before, yes one has to reference papers to insure accuracy. As far as the Tai Chi classes; if Sithburnes had come to more than one class he may have gotten something out of it instead of making up things to complain about. BTW Sithburnes: Master Mattielo is a Master in TKD and was doing us a good turn by giving us an alternative experience in a soft style martial art.

With response to the pedophile incident; the pervert in question attended with his son, and at the time I believe had no known record of pedophilia while at the facility. I knew the guy and even attended his son's birthday party never suspecting he was capable of such deviant behavior. The DateLine airing happened months after he left to start his own school in another city. I can tell you from personal experience that no adult is allowed to hang out at the Dojang without having reason to be there. Primarily all adults have children in attendance and if not they have been referred from another student in good standing. I might ask; why after months almost a year after this person left did you all of a sudden show concern for your child? There was no logical reason. There are cameras in every part of the building inside and out, along with background checked staff watching the children at all times. Master Matiello even goes further to ensure their safety outside of the Dojang by posting neighborhood bad guy reports as well as teaching the children what to do should they be approached by strangers if they where to find themselves separated from their parents while in public.

As far as the allegations of money mongering, I also know from personal experience Master Matiello works with students and families who are in financial hardships by giving them scholarships and other financial considerations. He is running a private school after all and would not be able to help his students if the doors are closed.

Master Matiello is a man of honor and a Veteran of our great United States military. I and my son owe him a personal debt of gratitude for all the time, effort and heart he has put in our martial arts education. I gladly pay our monthly tuition knowing that it is well worth the investment in our physical, mental and personal growth as human beings. It would have served you and your whole family well to have stayed under his tutelage.

In closing I say shame on you Sithburns, for making up such nonsense. Master Mattiello's good reputation will rise above your childish remarks.

My being the oldest student at the White Lion has not been easy. I have spent the last three years going to this school going from a White Belt all the way to a Black Belt. I went to EVERY class from Monday to Friday for three years straight and there has been no belt tests or classes performed without me . I think that makes me a very qualified witness or spokesman as to what goes on at the White Lion school, (more so then this guy complaining who was using our do jang as a day care for his kid).

I was trying to stay out of this, but it really upsets me when someone disrespects my training, my school and my Masters. This guy who wrote this complaint and his daughter were never real "serious" students, and it's a shame that he wants to defemate our school just to get out of a bill that he agreed to pay. In any contract,(like a phone or internet account), you have to pay the remainder of the un-used months remaining if you want to quit using them, right?

I think it is ridicoulos that this guy is using the excuse of the pedifile who went there as a student as a reason to quit. Pedifiles are all over the world and they are quite good at hiding there secrets from the public. Do you really think that if Master Mattiello had a clue as to this pedifiles dark side he would have let him and his son continue as students, and endanger his business? I know him very well and it wouldn't have happened.

Master Mattiello is a man of honor, and he ,if anything, is way over-protective of all his students, especially the kids. Adults are not allowed to touch the kids, and we aren't even allowed to help them stretch before workouts! Every square inch of the property both in and out is digitally recorded and there has never been a incident that i know of anything happening that was improper.

This school has just went through a federation change, and that is why the masters have referred to reading and checking manuals. We have all had to re-learn an entirely new type of style and forms! I have personally improved my mental and physical status 100% in the past three years and i am PROUD to be a Black Belt from the White Lion TKD School. Master Mattiello is like a Father to me, and he can't be expected to have every student's background checked. This pedifile whom we mention didn't have anything on his record anyways, until six months after he quit our school, so background checks wouldn't have worked.

I would reccommend our school to anyone who has kids as a safe and AAA school. I worked hard for my spot as a Black belt and i will continue here to get my higher belts at this school. This should never have been turned into a personal attack on our school and Master, because now you have raised suspicions about all of us having secret pasts, etc...and it's all crap to get out of a bill-do the honorable thing and pay the bill!

I would like to take a moment out of my very busy day and away from my children to come to the defense of a business that I believe in whole heartedly!!! My feeling is that it's pretty sad that adults don't have better things to do with their time then to place false information on the internet about decent good heart businessmen.

It is my observation that this complaint has been filed by a man that has no other means of taking out his aggression like an adult that to make statements about a company that are not true.

First I would like to say that this man claiming to protest his children was usually one of the last to pick his child up, and the other child was a kicking, screaming out of control, can't take him into public without complete embarrassment or disruption of what was going on. Hmmmm! Anybody that knows anything about people can figure that one out.

Secondly, I would like to say that these comments are coming from a man that doesn't have the self respect enough to take his uniform home and wash it. Come on....can you not smell yourself, everyone else could!

Thirdly, this is not about protecting your child! This is about not paying your bills as an adult and adult consequences. You can't get something for nothing anymore. You have electricity when you pay the electric bill......these are adult responsibilites that respectful humans take seriously. When you don't there are consequences, and there is nobody to blame but yourself.

Now fourthly, if this man(master) and this business were so bad to deal with why would you ever think about coming back after Master dropped the account with collections?

Come on now, take responsibility for your behavior and be an adult! I would like to say that if your reading this and the other rebuttles, this one comes from a person that has had children attending classes for over a year, has seen the caring and discipline Master gives the children and watched the children develope into great students, have respect for themselves and others.

Unfortunately, maybe the adults don't teach as well as the children. We lead by example, and I would like to say that this complaint is filed by a man that can not look people in the face while talking to them. Hmmmm, doesn't that tell you something about him?

I would trust myself and my children with Master at any time and any day! Master has done wonderful things for myself and my children, and would not hesitate to talk with Master about anything or ask for help if I was in a financial bind and was not able to meet my obligation to the school. Master is very understanding and has gone out of his way to help me and my family!

Throughout my rebuttle there may be some spelling errors that I have over looked, please don't let that take away from the content. Understand I have a family in need of my attention awaiting as I take time away from them to respond to poor taste about a company I believe in and will support with everything I have!!

Unfortunately we know of this case on dateline, but the person involved on dateline left our school at least 6 months before this event even took place. He was never employed by us, he was just a student that earned a Black Belt at our school. The oerson who put this complaint on this report Mr burns was just trying to get out of his ageement with us because they had a family member that wanted to pick up his daughter for free. He saw a way of having his daughter picked up for free and didn,t want to honor his agreement with us. He even paid for a few months after he new about this pervert.If you look on public records you will see they have a history of this kind of payment history. He even sent this to the BBB
after reading my response with the proof I sent they closed the file in my favor.I and all the people that work for my school have background checks. We cannot be responsible for background checks on all of the students or be responsible for their actions. I wonder if the person that filed this bogus report would like to take a backgound report on himself, or would like to compare his payment history agains mine. Sorry to have to again defend myself against a dead beat. I will be consulting a lawyer and find out what rights of mine has been violated. Anyone can come by my school un announced at any time. I have been in business for 25 years and always helped the community. It's a shame that someone would try to defame people just to get out of an agreement, and use their child as a reason. Very sad.

Unfortunately we know of this case on dateline, but the person involved on dateline left our school at least 6 months before this event even took place. He was never employed by us, he was just a student that earned a Black Belt at our school. The oerson who put this complaint on this report Mr burns was just trying to get out of his ageement with us because they had a family member that wanted to pick up his daughter for free. He saw a way of having his daughter picked up for free and didn,t want to honor his agreement with us. He even paid for a few months after he new about this pervert.If you look on public records you will see they have a history of this kind of payment history. He even sent this to the BBB
after reading my response with the proof I sent they closed the file in my favor.I and all the people that work for my school have background checks. We cannot be responsible for background checks on all of the students or be responsible for their actions. I wonder if the person that filed this bogus report would like to take a backgound report on himself, or would like to compare his payment history agains mine. Sorry to have to again defend myself against a dead beat. I will be consulting a lawyer and find out what rights of mine has been violated. Anyone can come by my school un announced at any time. I have been in business for 25 years and always helped the community. It's a shame that someone would try to defame people just to get out of an agreement, and use their child as a reason. Very sad.

Unfortunately we know of this case on dateline, but the person involved on dateline left our school at least 6 months before this event even took place. He was never employed by us, he was just a student that earned a Black Belt at our school. The oerson who put this complaint on this report Mr burns was just trying to get out of his ageement with us because they had a family member that wanted to pick up his daughter for free. He saw a way of having his daughter picked up for free and didn,t want to honor his agreement with us. He even paid for a few months after he new about this pervert.If you look on public records you will see they have a history of this kind of payment history. He even sent this to the BBB
after reading my response with the proof I sent they closed the file in my favor.I and all the people that work for my school have background checks. We cannot be responsible for background checks on all of the students or be responsible for their actions. I wonder if the person that filed this bogus report would like to take a backgound report on himself, or would like to compare his payment history agains mine. Sorry to have to again defend myself against a dead beat. I will be consulting a lawyer and find out what rights of mine has been violated. Anyone can come by my school un announced at any time. I have been in business for 25 years and always helped the community. It's a shame that someone would try to defame people just to get out of an agreement, and use their child as a reason. Very sad.

Unfortunately we know of this case on dateline, but the person involved on dateline left our school at least 6 months before this event even took place. He was never employed by us, he was just a student that earned a Black Belt at our school. The oerson who put this complaint on this report Mr burns was just trying to get out of his ageement with us because they had a family member that wanted to pick up his daughter for free. He saw a way of having his daughter picked up for free and didn,t want to honor his agreement with us. He even paid for a few months after he new about this pervert.If you look on public records you will see they have a history of this kind of payment history. He even sent this to the BBB
after reading my response with the proof I sent they closed the file in my favor.I and all the people that work for my school have background checks. We cannot be responsible for background checks on all of the students or be responsible for their actions. I wonder if the person that filed this bogus report would like to take a backgound report on himself, or would like to compare his payment history agains mine. Sorry to have to again defend myself against a dead beat. I will be consulting a lawyer and find out what rights of mine has been violated. Anyone can come by my school un announced at any time. I have been in business for 25 years and always helped the community. It's a shame that someone would try to defame people just to get out of an agreement, and use their child as a reason. Very sad.