Posted on 05/12/2008 2:33:46 PM PDT by radar101
Tyler Hurd, a 23-year-old junior at SCSU, hopes to be a special education teacher.
Hurd spent the past month at Technical High School in St. Cloud, working toward completing the 50 hours of secondary field placement required to earn his teaching license.
But student teaching, along with many other aspects of daily life, is not always simple for Hurd.
When Hurd was 14, he sustained a head injury while playing hockey. The injury resulted in epilepsy, a neurological disorder causing chronic seizures.
Because a seizure can take place at any moment, Hurd was matched with Emmitt, a 2 and a half-year-old black Labrador retriever, trained in seizure response.
Emmitt's $7,000 worth of training allows him the ability to know the difference between left and right, to open and close doors, turn lights on and off, and most importantly, he knows to stay with Hurd in the event of a seizure.
"He became my independence," Hurd said.
Because of the severity of Hurd's disorder, he brings Emmitt everywhere, including Tech High School, where he did his student teaching.
Tech High School has a large Somali population, most of whom are Muslim.
Hurd quickly began to notice many Somali students reacted with extreme fear and even disdain toward Emmitt.
According to Abdirahman Muhumed, program assistant at La Cruz Community Program, it can be difficult for Somali immigrants to adjust to America's love for dogs.
This is because within the Muslim faith, it is considered unclean to touch one. In fact, it is forbidden.
"You have to wash your hands seven times with water, soap and sand,"
He explained that Emmit is highly trained to stay near him at all times. Furthermore, he let them know that under no circumstance would Emmit approach them. Emmit's focus is solely on Hurd.
Though Hurd's students quickly became accustomed to Emmit's presence, the rest of the school's student population was not informed of the dog's purpose.
Hurd said he soon began to notice animosity from students outside his classroom.
He witnessed students scream, run from, taunt and antagonize Emmitt. Hurd resorted to entering and leaving his class while the halls were empty, to minimize the chaos.
Last week, the situation came to a head when one of Hurd's students notified him of a threat.
"He told me there was a group of Somali students who wanted to beat and kill my dog," Hurd said.
Yet threats like these are against the Muslim faith, and Muhumed said it is likely a case of adolescent immaturity.
"Our religion is not allowed to kill a dog," Muhumed said. "That is forbidden."
Yet due to the nature of the threat, Hurd reported the incident to the assistant principal, Lori Lockhart.
"It was two days before she got back to me," Hurd said.
But concerning the incident, Lockhart said no threats were made.
"It was kind of a misunderstanding," Lockhart said.
According to Lockhart, the Tech student only meant that some Somali's don't like dogs and may want to hurt them.
Yet Hurd feels the whole situation was mismanaged.
He said Lockhart agreed to send an email to teachers alerting them of the incident and asking them to notify her of any threats they may be aware of.
According to Hurd, however, the email was never sent.
Hurd has since quit his field placement at Tech because he feels unsafe.
"I am not there because I don't want anything to happen to Emmitt-I feel threatened," Hurd said.
St. Cloud State has waived the remaining 15 hours of student teaching Hurd has yet to complete due to the circumstances.
Whether the administration at Tech High School feels they could have done more to educate their students about the purpose of service dogs is yet to be confirmed.
"We have a strong working relationship with the public schools," said Kate Steffens, dean in the college of education.
Steffens said she plans to set up a meeting with both the principal and vice principal of Tech High School in an attempt to come up with solutions.
"We want a win-win situation," Steffens said.
Yet Hurd feels it all may be a little too late.
"Because he's seizure response, he has a right to be anywhere I go," Hurd said. "To be threatened in public is a disability rights issue."
Then go back to your rat hole of country this guy need his dog
DOJ says that dog can go anywhere.
The owner shouldn’t have caved.
Too bad Minnesota isn't a Castle Doctrine state (you can shoot to kill to protect yourself or others at your place of employment).
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The tail wagging the dog.
And people don’t understand why we need a 14 century religion here that has never grown past desert rats?
“This is because within the Muslim faith, it is considered unclean to touch one. In fact, it is forbidden.”
Funny, I have a few muslim friends who adore my 90-lb golden retriever and let him climb in their laps and slobber all over their faces. Methinks some cultures are just super-squeamish about dogs and are trying to use religion to justify their heebie-jeebies.
The threats might even be a hate crime...
It actually is not strange - he can probably detect a small change in your body chemistry or respiration rate and has grown to associate it with your seizures. But you are very lucky to have him - he’s your guardian angel!
“We want a win-win situation,” ................ Simple enough! “When in F’n Rome, you do what the F’n Romans do” Don’t like it? Then go back to your country so you can wash your hands in water and sand 7 times a day. Ignorant A’holes, thank you Teddy for bringing them here, wish he’d find a nice place for them in Hyanisport or Palm Beach. Welcome to the third world America, what a country you were.
Having been the owner of a black lab, this story infuriates me! There is not a more gentle breed.
These dumba$$es need to go back to their $hithole country. We love dogs here!
That’s what I was thinking, the student teacher should sue the public school under the people with disabilities act and at least force the public school to reimburse him for all the costs that he incurred trying to get his student teaching credentials, his tuition, his living costs and transportation costs, and a little extra for the wasted semester. After all, he could be graduated and working a paid job if he had finished his student teaching.
I would rather touch my black lab, Ranger, than one of these diaperheads.
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