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."
Wonderful picture...how can anyone not LOVE this little puppy face. We had a Black Lab when I was in College. His name was Cricket and he was wondeful...full of energy, loyal and playful..great pooch!
Say what you want about
My Mother , My Father
My Sister, My Brother
My Son or my Daughter
BUT DON’T SCREW WITH MY DOG!!!
I’m sure there are enough folks her that would pay for the tickets for them to leave so they could go back to a life enviroment that suits their fancy.
I’m thinking what are they gonna do to the pig farmers in our area? These people need to renounce their bigotry when they come here, or else not be allowed in, for student visas or anything else.
When I think of all the great allies we have abandoned over the years and then think that we imported Somalians who cheered and laughed at our dead soldiers in Blackhawk Down.
Who in the hell was responsible for importing them all? We had Vietnamese boat people spend years in camps waiting to come to the States yet it seemed like overnight we imported a bunch of hostile Moslem’s from Somalia who has caused nothing but problems.
“She was having such a good time I didn’t have the heart to scold her.”
How could any one get mad at that? It is just too cute and funny!
Thank God for dogs! Mine brighten my day just by being there.
My cousin has 3 of them..and they are smart and well trained..and goofy at times too especially around the toy box..When they can’t get the toy they want, and they know exactly which one it is, they whine! On the other hand, they are so well trained in what to do in case of fire ( like stop, drop and roll; or crawl on the floor to the door if there is smoke in the house; or get the phone to call 911...yes the “daddy “ is a fireman) that they do little shows for kids who are learning this kind of safety measures....oh and did I mention that they are also on Hallmark card?
I need to memorize that.
Just one.
You interested in running for high Public Office by any chance?
I really can’t speak my mind about this incident, except to say that a loving dog’s life is worth more than that of some others.
Muslims “don’t like” dogs because dogs can see straight into their evil souls.
[yeah, that’s not “politically correct” to say...tough]
Let me get this straight-they can happily cut off a young girl’s genitals but can’t touch a dog?
I’ll end this here before I get banned or piss off any of our resident cult-apologists.
There’s Lindy—my hero!
This should be done to those ignorant intolerant Somali students.
Too true! but the whole thing comes down to, who will cave.
When we were training our pup, I always felt that we were educating people. If someone turned us away, she didn’t need to be there. She was just training. So if we got a toss, next time they may think.
The owner caved.
Ibezian Hound. Pharaoh Hound. Saluki.
Pretty much all sighthounds used by ancient Eqyptian nobles in hunting game. Very old breeds.
St. Cloud State has waived the remaining 15 hours of student teaching Hurd has yet to complete due to the circumstances.Not a wasted semester; the college considers the student teaching completed.
What you said.
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