Issues with glitch-locking when trying to prestige friendly gyms?

I'm fairly newish to Pokemon Go (starting playing mid-November, now almost level 27), and over the past few weeks I've been getting more involved in the local gym scene. There are two (Mystic) gyms not too far from my house that I've attempted to prestige multiple times (one level 5, one level 8, both ridiculously stable), only to be immediately be booted from battle with 'Error' messages and unable to reenter battle again thereafter, and at times kicked out of my account altogether. The game runs just fine until I attempt to prestige the gym, at which point everything goes haywire and I'm pounded with 'Error' messages and unable to run the game smoothly (or sometimes even get back into my account) until I'm at least a block or so away from the gym. I'm not starting the battle and then moving or anything like that, and this is something that has only consistently happened at these two gyms when I've attempted to prestige them. Has anyone else experienced something similar? Is there anything I can do about this? It's very frustrating and putting me off seeking out gyms to prestige.