Posted on 05/14/2008 5:08:52 AM PDT by SJackson
A St. Cloud State University student in a teacher-training program at Technical High School left the school in late April because he says he feared for the safety of his service dog.
The school district calls it a misunderstanding, and officials there say they hoped Tyler Hurd, a 23-year-old junior from Mahtomedi who aspires to teach special education, would continue his training in the district.
Hurd said a student threatened to kill his service dog named Emmitt. The black lab is trained to protect Hurd when he has seizures.
The seizures, which can occur weekly, are from a childhood injury.
The dog has a pouch on his side that assists those who stop to help Hurd.
Hurd said he was unable to finish his 50 hours of field training at Tech. The university waived the remaining 10 hours, he said. He plans to do his student teaching outside a high school setting.
“We came up with a solution because I felt threatened by it," Hurd said.
The school district and university are working to make sure a similar situation doesn't happen.
Kate Steffens, dean of the college of education at St. Cloud State, and Tech assistant principal Lori Lockhart met Thursday.
The threat came from a Somali student who is Muslim, according to Hurd, St. Cloud State and school district officials.
The Muslim faith, which is the dominant faith of Somali immigrants, forbids the touching of dogs.
Hurd trained at Talahi Community School and Tech. He said his experience at Talahi was good. The Somali students there warmed to the dog and eventually petted him using paper to keep their hands off his fur, Hurd said.
Things didn't go as well at Tech, Hurd said. Students there taunted his dog, and he finally felt he had to leave after he was told a student made a threat. Hurd met with Lockhart but said he did not feel comfortable continuing.
Julia Espe, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for St. Cloud school district, said the school needed to do a better job communicating.
“I think it was a misunderstanding where we didn't really prepare either side for possible implications," Espe said.
Espe said the school's investigation determined the student did not make a direct threat.
“We certainly welcome (Hurd) in our district, and we hope we can get this all resolved so he feels welcome and his dog is welcome," Espe said.
St. Cloud State places about 1,000 students in 240 schools to help prepare them for careers in education.
In St. Cloud school district, 330 are in the field training program Hurd was in and 94 are in student teaching.
Steffens said it is important to respect different cultures and the rights of disabled students.
“I think this is part of the growth process when we become more diverse," Steffens said.
Steffens called Hurd a good student and committed young man.
Gary Loch, who is the diversity coordinator for the district, said the situation was an unfortunate case of miscommunication.
“I'm not quite sure where the breakdown comes into play here," Loch said.
No, it's important to respect the rights of disabled students, the Somali can take his dog hating, woman hating, Jew hating culture back to Somalia. I've no respect for it at all.
Rather than doing away with service dogs it would be much better for society in general to get rid of all Muslims.
Horse hockey!
The communication is very clear. All a mooslin needs to do is whine and whimper and diversity coordinators wet their pants.
Disgusting.
interesting about service dogs.
It doesn’t look like the school is preparing these Somali students for a cold, hard American reality when they leave its doors. The student might not be so lucky if he made threats like that elsewhere.
We made our mistake when we didn’t go back in after Black Hawk Down.
“I’ve no respect for it at all.”
Respect? I have utter contempt for islam.
Rather than doing away with service dogs it would be much better for society in general to get rid of all Muslims.
Worth repeating and supporting!
“Release the hounds!”
And the Mohammedan's problem was what? You're not suppose to touch other peoples' service dogs anywany.
Wretched barbarians!
what kind of messed up “religion/culture” forbids the touching of dogs? you have to teach children to hate dogs unless they’ve been bitten.. it’s natural for children to love animals.. and its a natural reaction to want to pet animals.. they are truly screwed up.
“Rather than doing away with service dogs it would be much better for society in general to get rid of all Muslims.”
Maybe we ought to just turn the tables on them, and do what they do: Convert them to Christianity (or Judaism, or Buddhism, or Hinduism, or almost any other ism), enslave them, or kill them. Give them the choice.
Ditto that. Expel the little bastards and their families, not from the school, but from the country.
“All a mooslin needs to do is whine and whimper and diversity coordinators wet their pants.”
No kidding.
Let me see....an American....in America....having to bow down to a religious belief in a school where church and state are to be seperated. Having to fear for his aand his dogs life by a person from a country where the average income is $10.00 U.S. a year that his taxes are probably paying for the Muslim scums education. Did I leave anything out?
“The student might not be so lucky if he made threats like that elsewhere.”
Like, say, off campus.
What’s up with Lazamataz, is he in the penalty box?
The breakdown comes in you failing to do your job, Gary. I can't imagine that a 'diversity coordinator' has a lot to do, but it seems to me that understanding potential culture clashes and communicating in no uncertain terms that any violence or threatening comments will not be tolerated, would be a good place to start. I have never seen such namby pamby pussyfooting around. Ever.
He is
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