Alert and Complaint about a Piano Teacher's Misconduct

[angelt21]

This event is based in the United Kingdom. My friend is diagnosed with musician's dystonia that needs special care in piano teaching. Her teacher, who graduated from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, knew that and taught her 4 lessons in total with 3 lessons focused on one of Chopin's ballades. During lessons, she let her children disturb her teaching, only about 15 minutes during each 45-minute lesson was truly focused on teaching piano. She also did not prepare any information when my friend told her that she would like to apply for conservatories. The condition of her hand after those 4 lessons worsened and she was not able to play piano, making me doubtful if she was knowledgeable in teaching a student in such a special case or trying to aggravate my friend's condition. We still tried to contact the piano teacher again almost three weeks before but there was no reply from her.
As a piano teacher, I think the teacher's act is irresponsible and unreasonable. In addition to the problem of teaching, I believe that my friend who is talented and has progressed in a repertoire like Chopin's ballade unusually faster than others needs special guidance from specialists who can care for her development and well-being. She is currently suffering from deteriorating health because of domestic violence and her neighbour's harassment. Her father bit her hand when she was young which possibly weakened her wrist and hindered her ability to play the piano, and 1 year ago after undergoing an operation, her father pulled hard from her wrist and strained her skin clips when saying he was helping her. She ended up re-admitting to the hospital twice.
Since I don't have any experience teaching a student with special needs and resources to help my friend, I am writing here to make a complaint and ask for help if there is any useful advice for her in rehabilitating her hand. It would be great if someone knew legal assistance is applicable since she is disabled. I appreciate your help!

[pianocavs]

Hello.
Unfortunately, I cannot give you any technical or legal advice because I do not have the necessary experience nor do I know the English regulations.
What I can do is to express my deep sympathy for you and your friend,
We all must work harder to make a better world.
A world guided by a very simple but very profound principle... doing good to all people and nature.
A world where harming someone in any way is the worst offense that can be committed.
My best wishes to both of you.

[keypeg]

I read this when it first came out.  There is a lot here.

The teaching with children interrupting lessons is ofc a problem, and is a reason for discontinuing lessons.  I've seen this happen with a friend.

Meanwhile several things are going on: injury by a parent when the student was a child, domestic violence, and harassment by a neighbour.  The childhood injury is outside of the teacher's actions.  The violence and harassment can both lead to physical tension through emotion and fatigue, and I imagine could affect the quality and nature during practice.  I'd think that changing that situation (the domestic violence) should be addressed before anything else.

The unusual speed of progress may well have contributed to the present physical situation (dystonia) - and if quite talented, this is where the risk of poor physical teaching and too fast a progression are the most likely.  One would want to address all that, possibly with a teacher specializing in remediation and healing.  That path could well be the opposite of getting ready for a conservatory - which is more of fast pace and more pressure for results.

The 4 lessons also imply 28 practice sessions - 24 if there is no practising on lesson days.  If the student applied things taught, then the lessons may have contributed to the worsening of the injury that was already there, IF the things taught had that kind of effect.

My thinking is that the priority right now is to solve the problems.
- get out of the domestic violence situation (which may also solve the neighbour problem, depending on who moves out)
- possibly consult a medical specialist, maybe one who specializes in musicians' injuries, to start solving that part
- find a teacher who specializes in remediation, fixing the problems including maybe playing habits that were acquired.
Imho, the goal isn't conservatory right now - it's getting the problems fixed before they get worse.

Off the cuff.  I have no expertise.  I did, however, come very close to injury and may have overcome the start of one, some years ago.  It's a thing to be taken seriously.