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."
The dog’s urine is cleaner than the water they drink in Somalia. Even the dog itself is cleaner than 90% of the population.
Well, at least the young man got that out of the terrible abuse that he suffered at the hands of the public school system. He was still denied the feeling of satisfaction and self confidence that successful completion of his student teaching would have provided. As insignificant as that may seem to most people, for a handicapped person, it is another blow to his self esteem.
He should still sue the public school system.
Ever consider a run for the Presidency? I think your outlook is one we sorely need in this nation - and our foreign policy.
“Ibezian Hound. Pharaoh Hound. Saluki.”
Thanks for the gentle prod. Some interesting info on them...
(although I take info from Wiki with a large helping of salt)
Ibezian Hound sounds like a breed favored in Muslim Spain;
maybe the “unclean” stigma for dogs hadn’t been solidified yet
or not observed on the far edge of the Islamic world?
(Interesting to note that “the female is deadlier than the male” in
terms of hunting prowess.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibizan_Hound
Pharoaoh Hound as the national dog of Malta sounds like a breed that
managed to escape Islam on the small Christian island kingdom.
(OK, Malta passed back and forth between Christians and Muslims)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharaoh_Hound
Salukis...sound like the Muslim/Arab dog...and given an exemption from
the “unclean” status for other breeds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saluki
Of course not. That is what encourages the ragheads in places like Michigan and Minnesota to believe they can get away with imposing Muslim culture on Americans in the United States. If it were up to me, there wouldn't be a single Muslim in the U.S. Not one.
People usually are defensive about their beliefs; it’s unlikely that young Muslims would respond positively to being reminded they’re in a Christian nation. Perhaps asking them where in the Koran it says that dogs are bad would be more to the point, especially as only the hadiths, and not Mohammed, declare dogs unclean.
According to hadiths, pure black dogs are simply evil with four legs and a tail and are only worth killing, which would explain the terror and screaming when the man’s black lab was seen on campus.
Interesting that they consider a dog’s presence enough to keep angels out of a room and enough to nullify a prayer. Their god and its messengers are a mighty weak lot.
Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe, we are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made. Author Unknown
Most lower life forms do indeed fear dogs.
I guess sensitivity training is out of the question since the complainers aren’t white.
I can see the TV commercials now.
“Are you disabled, rely on a service dog and been harassed or denied service in a Halal grocery store or mosque? If you have we can help. Federal law requires all businesses to accommodate service dogs. If you feel that you have been discriminated against we’re here to help. Call the law offices of Will, Screum, Goode.”
So. If my dobe rips a muslim's throat out. He will die unclean and not get his 72 virgins.
Good doggie!
“People usually are defensive about their beliefs; it’s unlikely that young Muslims would respond positively to being reminded they’re in a Christian nation. Perhaps asking them where in the Koran it says that dogs are bad would be more to the point, especially as only the hadiths, and not Mohammed, declare dogs unclean”
Something is not right when we expend Soldier’s lives fighting an enemy who scared of black dogs, pigs and pork products.
PC is killing soldiers. Pork bullets and bombs should have been implemented long ago along with packs of black dogs for crowd control.
She’s trained us to put the Kleenex in a plexiglass box (so she can only steal one at a time!)
The ACLU has already got a precedent setting case on this. Remember last months Photographer who was fined for refusing to shoot a homo marriage? The Photogs Christian beliefs were superceded by the Plaintives “needs”. I don’t recall the Photog threatining to kill the homos(sarc).
This students needs are legal and reasonable. This student should sue the school and ACLU too if they will not stand by their own rulings.
I can sorta understand him folding because he’s just a young kid but why aren’t his parents doing anything?
Did anyone even bother to alert the ADA about this?
I was thinking the MSM should take it up but the odds of them saying anything negative about the “ROP” are slim and none.
We can’t offend the fringe cultists, now can we?
If Baptists had threatened the dog’s life, it would be front page news.
I’m really starting to develop an across-the-board despisal of these freaks.
[yeah, yeah, I know...there are “good ones” out there somewhere but they sure seem to be a deathly silent minority]
Couldn’t agree more.
She’s not the one we have been talking about, is she?
Btw, the girls did great again in their last show.
That is odd that Big Mouthed PETA says nothing.
I have a Pharaoh Hound.
Is this how they assimilate into this country? Threaten the working/companion animals of our disabled citizens?
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