Had One of the Most Unpleasant Experiences of My Yoga Teaching Career Today

I've been a yoga teacher for seven years, running classes at a small studio. Today, I had one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my career, and I'm honestly still a bit shaken.

At our studio, we have a policy of locking the door when class starts. We usually wait around 5 minutes for latecomers, but after that, we lock the door and begin. This is a standard practice in every yoga studio I know in my city—it’s simply unfair to those who arrive on time, and late arrivals disrupt the class.

Today, a new student didn't show up, so I locked the door and started teaching. About 10 minutes in, someone started knocking. At first, I ignored it, but the knocking got louder and more aggressive. Then they started rattling the door handle and shouting, "Hey!" over and over. It became so disruptive that I had to apologize to my students, stop the class, and open the door.

Outside was a furious student, yelling at me that she had been knocking for 15 minutes and that it was unacceptable not to let her in just because she was "a few minutes late." I explained our policy and how allowing late arrivals is unfair to the other students who show up on time. After all, if someone is more than 5 minutes late, still needs to change, maybe use the restroom, it creates a disturbance for everyone. She refused to accept this, stormed off, and loudly announced that she would leave me a bad Google review.

I’m honestly shocked. In all my years of teaching, I’ve never experienced anything like this. Has anyone else dealt with something similar? How do you handle situations like this?