21st century self defense Warning- intentionally harmed my son Pacific Missouri

Our 5th grade son had started wrestling at a junior program and really enjoyed the experience. When wrestling season ended we were seeking somewhere for him to continue wrestling. We discovered 21st century self defense in Pacific, Mo. on Google and spoke with the owner to make arrangements for our son to start a class that supposedly had students in his age range.

The first thing that we noticed when we arrived was that all the students there were adults or young adults. We explained that our son although participating in folk style wrestling for a couple of months had no experience in protecting himself from arm bars, chokes and techniques used in mixed martial arts.

We were asked to fill out paperwork while our son started the class and noticed he had been paired up with a teenager that was much older, bigger and experienced then himself. After a ten minute warm up the instructor instructed my son and the older teenager to go live. We noticed the older teenager was cranking on our 11 year old sons head and our son was in tears.

My husband intervened and reminded very clearly that our son did not have experience and could not protect himself. We went back to filling out the paperwork and one of the other parents brought it to my husbands attention that our son was being hurt. My husband went over to see that the older teenager had his hands locked around our sons neck and was trying to choke him out.

My husband then asked the instructor why they were going live again and the instructor informed my husband that the owner had came down and whispered in his ear that he wanted my son and the older teenager to go live starting with the older teenager in a dominant choke position with our son facing down on the mat and the older teenager mounted on top of him.

The instructor informed my husband that he was just doing what the owner told him to do. We quickly realized that our son could not turn his head and was in a great deal of pain and was having difficulty breathing. We immediately took our son to the ER where it was discovered that he had tore and strained muscles in his back and neck with swelling of his airway.

Our son who is very active in sports has not been able to participate. After 4 months of many doctor appointments and therapy he is still wheezing and experiencing neck pain. My husband being a coach of over 20 years understands the first responsibility of a coach is to protect and guide the young athletes.

We find this experience very disturbing and just hope and pray that our son will eventually make a full recovery and be able to return back to his normal way of life. We strongly recommend that you be very careful taking young children to 21st century self defense in Pacific, Mo.