Yoga Studio Co-Founder Sues Ex-Student After Allegations of Sexual Harassment by an Instructor Surfaced

Last month, a Yoga studio, Trust Yoga, was thrust into the limelight for all the wrong reasons: a former student has alleged a male instructor of sexual harassment.

She had claimed in a series of Instagram stories that the instructor has allegedly molested her while he was adjusting her position in a yoga pose during a class at the studio.

She said that he then “acted as if nothing untoward had happened and just continued teaching the class” after molesting her.

The woman returned to the studio the next day with her father to talk to Trust’s owners about the incident.

She was allegedly told that this was not the first time someone had accused the instructor of molestation.

Even though Trust’s owners said they would take “strict action”, the woman claimed that the teacher was still conducting classes afterwards.

Soon after, Trust released a statement on Facebook in response to the incident, saying they take allegations of sexual assault “very seriously”.

The studio said the accused instructor has agreed to take a leave of absence pending the studio’s internal investigations. The authorities have also been notified of the matter.

So, now you’re wondering: did you read the headline wrongly?

No, because it’s 2020, and everything has a plot twist: including this story.

Yoga Studio Co-Founder Sues Ex-Student After Allegations of Sexual Harassment by an Instructor Surfaced

If that’s not obvious enough, read this again: words have consequences.

It turns out that after the initial accusations, CASE said that there has been a total of 11 complaints were filed against Trust…between 13 July to 23 September.

I don’t know what’s the average lah but even the beauty salon in Tampines that charged over $4.5K for face treatment didn’t have that many complaints. Just referencing lah.

Customers had wanted to terminate their membership and get refunds from the sessions because they learned about the sexual allegations.

Other than that, according to Yahoo! News, there has been police reports filed by five female ex-students—who all accused the male instructor of molestation.

Back then, they had not made a police report as they didn’t know it was inappropriate—they were then inexperienced. It was only after the sexual harassment incident that they realised it wasn’t normal.

So, what has this got to do with the latest legal processing?

Well, a former student has taken the complaints to another level.

At least according to the co-founder of the studio.

Apparently, it was alleged that former student Judy Ni Chia Min had stopped attending classes at the studio after the sexual misconducts went viral.

She then requested for refunds, and it appears that her request was so gung-ho that the co-founder of Trust, Wong Shiou An, had to start legal proceedings against her under the Protection from Harassment Act.

If this sounds familiar, goody: you’ve our app and come to it daily. If not, download it here and come in daily for informative and entertaining articles, lah.

So basically, if a person gets a Protection Order from the court, the “harasser” cannot harass the person anymore, if not it’d be illegal.

In other words, if Wong wins the case, Judy can’t say anything about Trust and she can’t go find her.

So, what were the harassments about? Did Judy go up to her house every day to ask for refunds?

According to Judy, the suit referred to a Facebook post and Google review she made after her request for a refund of membership fees was denied.

I’ve tried going through all (I think) reviews in Trust’s Google Reviews (there doesn’t appear to be a Review feature in their Facebook Page now) but couldn’t find any review from any Judy Ni Chia Min.

Just for your info, reviews can’t be removed or altered by the businesses; comments can, which explains why you only see good comments on our—

Editor: Move on, don’t write so much about review and comments.

Okay.

Judy could’ve stayed silent, just like what SMRT Feedback did when Xiaxue filed a Protection Orders against him / her / it / them, and never speak about Trust or Wong again.

But Judy isn’t going to do that; instead, she has since engaged lawyers Josephus Tan and Darren Tan of Invictus Law to act to her.

If that sounds familiar, yes, it’s these two cool dudes:

Late last month, Trust also mentioned that they’ve added more CCTV on its premises, and also said that “a number of our staff members and students (who has spoken up for the studio and its instructors) had faced criticisms and were traumatized by the harassment they had received online.”

The suit is now in its pre-trial conference stage, so it’d be a while before we get any updates.

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