When an Instructor Is Accused: What a Martial Arts School Should Do in the First 24 Hours
A former Fresno jiu-jitsu academy owner was arrested this week on suspicion of sexually assaulting a minor. He has not been convicted of anything. What makes the case worth every school owner’s attention is what happened before the arrest: the franchise he was affiliated with says it learned of the allegations on 21 August and ended the relationship the same day. Most schools have no plan for that day. Here is what the first 24 hours should look like.
About this article. Everything reported here about the Fresno case is an allegation. No charge has been proven, and the man named is presumed innocent. Martial Arts Professional is published by NAPMA, which is developing the Safe Training Environment standard referred to below. This article is general information for school owners, not legal advice; the law differs from state to state and country to country, and any school facing an allegation should speak to a lawyer immediately.
What happened in Fresno?
Fresno police arrested Michael Monson, 48, at his home on the evening of Wednesday, 16 September, on suspicion of sexually assaulting a minor, according to a report by ABC30 Fresno. He was released on bond early the next morning. Police said the case remains under investigation and released few details. ABC30’s report does not say whether prosecutors have filed charges, and it carries no comment from Monson.
Monson had been the owner and head instructor of a northwest Fresno academy operating under the Jean Jacques Machado Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu franchise. Franchise representatives told ABC30 they learned of the allegations on 21 August and severed ties with him that day, saying that, based on the information presented to them, they had determined the conduct alleged was highly inappropriate and inconsistent with their standards.
The gym has since reopened under new management as Frontline. Its new head instructor, Paul Elizondo, told ABC30 that his team has no connection with the former franchise location or with Monson.
We will report the outcome of the case when there is one. The reason we are covering it now is the organization’s response, not the allegation.
Why does the response matter more than the headline?
Because the response is the part a school owner controls. An owner cannot know in advance whether an allegation against an instructor is true. He can decide in advance what he will do in the hours after he hears it.
The recent record shows how differently that can go. Earlier this month a gym owner in Port Orange, Florida, whose coach had been arrested on charges involving a teenage student, told WFTV that he had heard concerns about the coach’s behavior for roughly ten months before the arrest and had relied on trust instead of acting. “I lived by just having trust, and I got burned,” he said. His gym, he said, had no formal policies to change.
In South Korea, where a taekwondo instructor in Yangju was sentenced in April 2025 to 30 years in prison for the death of a five-year-old boy, the court found that the instructor had deleted CCTV footage to destroy evidence; investigators recovered it and found 124 instances of abuse against 26 children. In another Korean case, now under police investigation, it was the parents, not the studio, who reviewed the security footage and filed the complaint.
In Fresno, by the franchise’s account, the decision took less than a day. That is the standard to measure against.
What should a martial arts school do in the first 24 hours?
The principle is simple: protect children first, preserve the facts second, and decide nothing about guilt at all. Suspending an instructor while an allegation is investigated is not a finding against him. It is what any responsible organization does, and it protects him as well as the students.
| When | Action | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Immediately | If a child may be in danger now, call 911. Do not wait to gather more information. | Safety comes before process. |
| Hour 1 | Remove the accused instructor from all contact with students, on paid or neutral administrative leave. Take away keys, alarm codes and access to class schedules, student records and group chats. | A neutral suspension protects students and the accused alike, and is not a finding of guilt. |
| Hour 1 | Report to law enforcement or child protective services if you are a mandated reporter, or if the allegation involves possible abuse of a child. In most states, anyone may report; many require it. | Reporting is a legal duty in many jurisdictions, and investigating is the police’s job, not yours. |
| Hours 1–4 | Call a lawyer who handles employment and child-protection matters. Notify your insurance carrier, following the notice terms of your general-liability and abuse-and-molestation coverage. | Late notice can jeopardize coverage, and every later step should be taken with advice. |
| Hours 1–4 | Preserve everything: CCTV, sign-in and attendance records, schedules, text messages, emails, social-media messages, payroll and background-check files. Suspend any automatic deletion. Do not edit or discard anything. | Evidence that disappears after an allegation is the worst outcome for everyone, including an accused person who is innocent. |
| Hours 1–4 | Do not interview the child, confront the accused about details or conduct your own investigation. Write down, word for word and with the time, what was reported to you and by whom. | Untrained questioning can contaminate a child’s account and damage the police investigation. |
| Hours 4–12 | If you are a franchisee or member of an association, notify the franchisor or governing body as your agreement requires. If you are the franchisor, decide promptly on the location’s status, as the Fresno franchise did. | The wider organization carries the brand and often has its own reporting duties. |
| Hours 4–12 | Brief the rest of your staff on a need-to-know basis: the instructor is on leave, all media and parent questions go to one person, and nobody discusses the matter on social media. | One spokesperson prevents rumor, speculation and defamation. |
| Hours 12–24 | With your lawyer, decide what to tell parents. Say that a concern has been reported to the authorities, that the instructor is not teaching while it is reviewed, how children are being supervised, and who to contact. Do not name the child, and do not state or imply guilt. | Parents are entitled to know their children are safe. They are not entitled to details that could identify a child or prejudge a case. |
| Hours 12–24 | Review who else may be affected: other classes the instructor taught, private lessons, travel, tournaments. Make sure two adults are present for every youth class until the matter is resolved. | If there is one report, there may be others, and supervision closes the gap. |
| Days 2–7 | Cooperate fully with investigators. Offer support to the family through appropriate channels. Document every decision you made and when you made it. | Your record of what you did, and how quickly, is what will be judged later. |
How can a school act quickly without prejudging guilt?
By separating two decisions that owners tend to run together. The first is protective: is it safe for this person to be alone with children while the facts are established? That decision should be made at once and on a low threshold. The second is disciplinary: did the conduct happen, and what follows? That decision belongs to the police, the courts and a proper process, and it should never be made in the first 24 hours.
The language matters too. Say “an allegation has been made” and “the instructor is on leave while it is reviewed,” never “he did it” or “we are sure it is nothing.” Either statement can expose the school to a lawsuit, and the second can drive a child’s family away from the authorities.
What should be in place before anything happens?
The owners who handle the first day well are the ones who decided what to do long before it came. At a minimum, every school that teaches children should have:
- background checks on every adult who works with children, repeated on a schedule;
- a written code of conduct covering one-to-one contact, private lessons, texting and social media with students, rides and travel;
- a rule that no instructor is alone and out of sight with a child;
- a written reporting procedure that names who receives a concern and how it goes to the authorities;
- CCTV on the training floor with a retention period long enough to matter;
- training for staff on recognizing grooming and on their reporting duties; and
- insurance that actually covers abuse and molestation claims, which many general-liability policies exclude.
Some of this is already the law. In California, AB 506, in force since 1 January 2022, requires youth service organizations to train administrators, employees and regular volunteers as mandated reporters, to run background checks and to adopt policies that include the presence of at least two mandated reporters when adults are in contact with children. Owners should confirm with counsel whether their school is covered. Federally, the Safe Sport Act, signed into law in 2018, requires adults authorized by national governing bodies and amateur sports organizations to report suspected child abuse, including sexual abuse, to law enforcement within 24 hours.
NAPMA’s draft Safe Training Environment standard sets out a martial-arts-specific version of these requirements, including a reporting protocol and a parent bill of rights, and its one-page School Owner Checklist is a practical place to start.
What a school owner should take from this
You will not get to choose whether an allegation reaches your school. You will get to choose how long it takes you to act, and whether you acted by a plan or by instinct. Write the plan now: who is suspended, who is called, what is preserved, what parents are told, and by whom.
The Fresno franchise’s same-day decision will be remembered whatever the outcome of the case, because it put the protection of students ahead of the relationship. The Port Orange owner’s ten months will be remembered too.
Quick answers
- Should a martial arts school suspend an instructor accused of abuse?
- Yes. The instructor should be removed from all contact with students immediately, on neutral administrative leave, while the allegation is investigated by the authorities. A suspension is a protective step, not a finding of guilt.
- Should the school investigate the allegation itself?
- No. The school should report to law enforcement or child protective services, preserve records and cooperate. It should not interview the child or conduct its own investigation, which can damage the police case.
- What should a school tell parents after an allegation?
- With legal advice, parents should be told that a concern has been reported to the authorities, that the instructor is not teaching while it is reviewed, how children are being supervised, and who to contact. The child should never be identified, and guilt should not be stated or implied.
- Are martial arts instructors mandated reporters?
- It depends on the jurisdiction and the organization. In California, AB 506 makes staff and regular volunteers of youth service organizations mandated reporters. Under the federal Safe Sport Act, adults authorized by national governing bodies and amateur sports organizations must report suspected child abuse to law enforcement within 24 hours. Owners should check their own state’s law with a lawyer.
- What happened in the Fresno jiu-jitsu case?
- A former Fresno academy owner, Michael Monson, was arrested on 16 September 2026 on suspicion of sexually assaulting a minor and released on bond. He has not been convicted. The franchise he was affiliated with says it learned of the allegations on 21 August and ended the relationship the same day.
Sources, and what we could not confirm
Sources: ABC30 Fresno, “Fresno jiu-jitsu instructor arrested on child sexual assault charge,” by Vincent Camarillo, for the Fresno arrest, the franchise’s statement and the new academy’s statement; WFTV, 10 September 2026, for the Port Orange gym owner’s account; The Korea Herald, 11 April 2025, for the Yangju sentence; The Herald Business, 25 August 2026, for the Yongin investigation; Liebert Cassidy Whitmore’s summary of California AB 506; and U.S. Soccer’s safeguarding guidance on the federal reporting requirement.
What we have not confirmed. Whether prosecutors have filed charges in the Fresno case; the nature of the information the franchise received on 21 August; and whether Monson has a lawyer or has made any statement. We have not named the Port Orange coach or the instructor in the Yongin investigation, and we have not reported a Queensland case that we were unable to verify from a primary source.
Presumption of innocence. The man named in this article has not been convicted of any offence. We will report the outcome of the case.
Corrections. See our editorial policy.
