Taekwondo instructor arrested for beating kids, lawsuit filed

 a lawsuit against the Anderson Taekwondo Center in Little Rock gave insight into alleged corporal punishment against a 4-year-old boy.

One employee has been arrested, and now the family is filing a lawsuit against the Taekwondo facility.

According to the lawsuit filed by the Cook Law Firm and an arrest affidavit, three paddles were found in the facility, one of them in the owner’s office.

The little boy told police that kids were expected to pick a paddle to be beaten with when they acted out in a ritual called ‘ice cream and cake’.

“I think for a police investigator to use the term hamburger meat for the injuries is very significant,” said Attorney Hal Cook. “The ritual, the sadistic ritual against this boy, was not an isolated incident.”

The boy claims this also happened to three other classmates.

The child’s mother first noticed severe bruising on her son’s bottom when she was giving him a bath. She notified police and contacted the daycare’s owner Richard Anderson.

According to text messages included in the lawsuit, the boy’s mother told the owner about what happened. Anderson by saying “I know this is bad, and I’m so very sorry, but let’s get with Mr. Sykes tomorrow and try to handle this.”

Bobby Sykes is the employee that allegedly carried out the beating. He was arrested on June 1 for second degree battery and bonded out last week.

“I think any parent can understand that any punishment characterized as ice cream and cake time, that’s certainly going to have a lasting possibility of long-term effects,” Cook added.

Text messages also show Anderson saying, “What do you want to happen to Mr. Sykes? For him not to ever put his hands on [named deleted] or any other child? For him not to come back to the center three months, six months or never. Those things we can do ourselves. [People] will be afraid of a lawsuit, and they will distance themselves from us.”

The lawsuit also stated that these beatings were carried out in what was called a punishment room.

Spokesperson for ATA Jordan Johnson made this statement on Friday regarding the lawsuit:

“ATA International, Inc., takes this allegation very seriously and does not condone any form of corporal punishment as part of the ATA curriculum. After being made aware of the allegation late this afternoon, ATA took swift and decisive action to suspend the licensee Mr. Anderson from any further participation with ATA. ATA holds all of its worldwide licensees to the highest of standards and has a zero tolerance policy for this type of behavior.”