NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. ()- Three branches of a well-known martial arts school chain are closing their doors. Premiere Martial Arts has shut down its North Augusta, Aiken, and Augusta locations, leaving only the Grovetown branch operational.

Potentially hundreds of Premiere students are displaced and are now scrambling to find other options to continue practicing martial arts.

“A lady walked in, just like usual. We often have walk-ins, and she asked, ‘Hey, do you guys offer a trial?’ We responded, ‘Yes, of course. You can try our classes for four weeks.’ Then, she mentioned, ‘Okay, well, that’s good to know. I just came from Premiere, and they canceled my trial because they’re closing,'” recounted Frank Beall, owner of North Augusta Martial Arts.

In August, students of Premiere Martial Arts in North Augusta received an email announcing the permanent closure of their school. The news was abrupt and completely unexpected for many.

“Initially, we thought the closure was limited to North Augusta. But within a day or two, we were contacted by someone in Aiken who relayed the same message, saying their school was also shutting down, and they wanted to visit us,” Beall explained.

Beall has noted an increase in students from Premiere seeking trial memberships at his dojo. He shared with NewsChannel 6 that the situation with Premiere has led to a decline in trust within the martial arts community in the CSRA.

“I’ve had several conversations with people, and while they were friendly conversations, the common sentiment was, ‘I trusted that other school, and look what happened. Why should I trust you?'” he expressed.

None of the students or families who were formerly at Premiere wanted to be identified. But one parent, who is also a student, told us anonymously that the situation has been very hard on the kids, especially her son who had major training goals he was working towards.

“All of our kids grew up together. People have been there for ten years. Thanks to you. We’ve been there for seven, six, seven years now,” she explained. “All of our kids grew up together. We’re very tight knit group, especially the lifetime people. And now we’re just trying to help each other pick up the pieces. Like our kids are devastated.”

Some families paid tens of thousands of dollars to Premiere Martial Arts for lifetime memberships, but so far have not been given a definitive answer on when or if they will be reimbursed. Our anonymous student said that some families are already stepping up to take action.

“A bunch of us already talked to a lawyer. We do have a lawyer who’s interested in taking the case. Now, we don’t have– like a lot of us don’t have the money to go somewhere. We’ve already invested that money. So now we’ve got to get the whole idea of the value of our contract versus what we’ve already worked out, versus inflation versus how much it’s going to cost to get someone else.”

We did reach out to Premiere Martial Arts in Grovetown for comment, but we have not heard back from them yet.

Photojournalist: Reggie Mckie.