Ruby the Black Lab sez, "Hey, you wanta make somethin' outa it? Bring it on!"
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."
Ruby the Black Lab sez, "Hey, you wanta make somethin' outa it? Bring it on!"
Honestly, I don’t know. If he had stood his ground which legally he could do, they may have hurt the dog.
The amount of time and money that goes into a service dog is huge. Personally, I wouldn’t have taken the chance either.
Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise. He is letting it be known that this is the reason why he left the school. The law was with him but it really wouldn’t help him at all to have the law on his side and his “right arm” cut off.
We started training an Autism Dog. She turned out to be too hyper, but really got no grief about her being anywhere. She was vested (you don’t have to) and we carried DOJ paperwork for her. Mostly, we were never hassled, but we were just training. Had I needed her, I’m not sure I would have put her in this kind of risky situation either.
(She was having such a good time I didn't have the heart to scold her. Not that it would have done any good. Labs just invite you to join in the fun!)
Looks like they've already taken over.
The little Somali’s just needed a talking to—
Hi, kids. Gee, I know you’re not from here and you may need a little help in adjusting to our customs. Here in America, dogs are not considered a bad thing and it is quite common to own them as cherished pets. Oh, we touch them, pet them and even hug them if we want to. I see by the looks on your faces that some of you find this upsetting— so here is some advice. Please take it the right way. WE ARE A CHRISTIAN LAND. WE DON’T SHARE THE STUPID, SUPERSTITION OF YOUR CHILD MOLESTING PROPHET and your other 14th century horseshit. So you better start acting like civilized people or get your asses back to that rat hole muslim country you came from instead of trying to ruin the one you came to. Any questions?
And you should have seen the seals tease the crap out of her at the Aquarium in Niagara Falls! They would skim the glass and look at her. One stared at her and when she came up, the seal flipped and swam away.
They really seemed to like her but I took her out anyway because she began to bark.
Muslims think dogs are “unclean”. My cats think the same thing.
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.
_____
LOL. Who doesn’t love a big goofy golden?
But it is ok to kill humans, especially your daughters if they impugn the honor of the family./SAR What a bunch of savages and oh, so tolerant of other cultures especially when they are in another country! I can't say enough bad things about muslims, I don't think their are enough bad words in the English language to cover how I feel about them.
As for the Liberal stupidity that invites and encourages said 'religion'; can only say, we must all do what we can to 'stop the madness' of 'political correctness' another viral manifestation that is weakening America's mind.
How about they go back to the dark bowels of racist/backwards Africa and try and get it right.
Oh, and take Obama with them.
>>How could they harm the dog if the dog is always with him? <<
That’s a good point, because these dogs are so well trained, but I think I would be scared with threats to my service dog.
It’s making the DOJ choose between Politically Correct and Correct.
What, no diversity training?
Obviously the school authorities are far more afraid of the Muslims than they care about a teacher’s medical requirements.
There is something fundamentally wrong with a person's soul who has the capability of hurting an innocent animal like this.
MM
All the muslims have to do is go back to their own country and we will keep the dogs.
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