A number of years ago a Chito-Ryu group was started in Bridgeport's Benedum Civic Center. And the blackbelt wasn't there for many months. When he did return he was extremely physically abusive to two students striking these two students with a wooden sword in the shins many many many times (with great and dangerous force). One of these two students was in the 10 to 12 year old range. This was reported to the Benedum Civic Center and was ignored as unimportant. I can only hope that there are more reasonable emotionally stable blackbelts teaching at the Civic Center though I know they were trained by the same abusive blackbelt... So I would constantly ask about the safety of any class at the Civic Center and if anything went wrong and if there was a qualified teacher there. With the Benedum Civic Center - you must use caution - and you must be your own advocate. I cannot possibly stress how important this actually is.