School Bans Second-Grader's Guide Dog

[matcom]

<snip>

Hailey Manduca has only one close friend: a golden retriever-Labrador mix named Indy.

The Scituate second-grader, who suffers from a rare disorder that causes her bones to break easily, has poor balance, cannot roughhouse with other children, and needs help climbing stairs. ``Nobody wants to play with her, because she can't do what other kids do," Hailey's mother, Cheryl, said yesterday. ``Indy is it for her."

Indy, short for Independence, has been Hailey's service dog since last August and follows the 8-year-old almost everywhere she goes. Everywhere except school.

Scituate school officials have barred Indy, saying that on the few occasions Indy has visited Jenkins Elementary School, the 2-year-old dog has growled and barked at students and teachers.

``The dog was poorly trained and aggressive," said Mary Ellen Sowyrda, a lawyer for the district. ``There is a safety issue. We don't want kids getting bitten."

Earlier this month, school officials and Cheryl Manduca met with a state-appointed mediator, who drew up an agreement between the two sides. Sowyrda declined to discuss the details of the agreement, but Manduca said she refused to sign it because it only called for a human aide for Hailey, which she said is required by law because of her daughter's condition. Manduca said school officials told her that neither Indy nor any other service dog would be allowed at the school.

Hailey said she would rather be home schooled than be apart from Indy. ``I'm very upset about this. I want my service animal," she said in a telephone interview yesterday from her house.

She has a severe form of osteogenesis imperfecta, a congenital disease that causes brittle bones, and has suffered 60 broken bones, her mother said.

Indy pulls Hailey's manual wheelchair when the little girl is too tired to walk. When Hailey, who also has dwarfism, walks down stairs, she leans on Indy as if she were a railing.

Sowyrda said school officials were excited to learn last year that there would be a dog at the school. But they became wary when the dog's trainer failed to show up at scheduled appointments at the school, she said. When the trainer did show up, the dog had to be muzzled, and on more than one occasion Indy barked at teachers and students, Sowyrda said.

School officials ``are absolutely unopposed to properly trained service dogs," she said. ``We're not the bad guys here."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/08/16/officials_in_scituate_ban_trained_guide_dog_from_2d_graders_school?mode=PF

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

1. This is absurd. If the dog wasn't properly trained, it wouldn't have been

made into a service dog. What the school is doing is illegal. :mad:

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. Why yes...yes you are the bad guys...

Shame on you.

[Chan790]

3. Look at the picture

That dog? They're saying *that* dog is aggressive?

He looks like he'd be a dream dog for that kind of work: perky, bright and calm. I'm calling bullshit on the school on this one, they just don't want to deal with the dog, so they're saying what they need to to not have to deal with the dog.