Laura provided me the link to another youtube video that was off to the side of the ones I had previously posted in related links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wId54ElSMbU&feature=fvw
This news clips discusses how a Washington County community chipped in and got a $13,000 service dog to help a little 7 year old boy that has been diagnosed with autism. However, the boy's school will not let the service dog inside the building when the parents come to pick him up for school or drop him off. The young boy is lacking in social skills and has many outbursts, and the service dog has been helping him with controlling these outbursts and provides a friend for the 7 year old. The school claims that the dog cannot be let in the building due to some children being allergic or afraid of the dog. The father of the boy brings up that they are being discriminated against, considering if the dog was a service dog and was helping an individual that was blind-the school would allow it.
The family does not want any special privileges, such as allowing the dog to accompany the boy throughout the school day. They just want the approval to have the dog in the entrance area of the school. The dog is a trained animal that has proved his positive benefit on the child. I just think it's absolutely disheartening that the school is discouraging something that is obviously helping the child. I just thought I'd post this up and see what all of you thought about it, because I was worried you may not see the link that Laura posted in my comments...Anyway, this sort of shows that some schools really do not promote the use AAT-which I think is a shame...Especially because there have been many studies completed to show how it can help.
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I am glad you found the article worth posting about. I can't imagine this young boy's parent's frustration. It appears that the dog is so helpful to the boy and it really made me sad to think that there wasn't some way to permit this child to be assisted by the dog. From this information given by the news, it seems that the school is clearly violating the student's rights. Of course, as news sometimes goes, we are only seeing one side of the story but I can't imagine something like that being reported without being factual. I would think that a school should want to do whatever it takes to see all students succeed, educationally and socially!
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