Brickbat: Dog Gone

After the the third meeting with officials at the Sherrard school district in Illinois, Kellsey McGuire's parents moved her to a Catholic school. The McGuires say a staff member at the school kept complaining about the presence of Kellsey's service dog, which they say she needs to keep by her because of her epilepsy. School officials refuse to comment on the case.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

While 8-year-old Kellsey McGuire sleeps at night, her service dog and best friend, Jasper, watches and listens for any signs of the seizures that plague her.

Jasper can now warn the new school when it’s time for an exorcism.

[invisible furry hand]

How easy is it to bark out “Your mother sucks cocks in hell”?

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Or rotate its head 360 degrees!

[Medical Physics Guy]

Can you blame him? Look at that ferocious bloodthirsty animal.

[LiveFreeOrDiet]

ADA leaves no wiggle room at all. The service dog must be accepted as if it was an appendage of the child.

[Almanian!]

“Excuse me, I don’t mean to be rude, but that is one strange looking appendage. Does it hurt?”

[The Hyperbole]

Meh, unless they’re gonna let everyone bring their pet to school this precious little snowflake is just gonna have to lump it. From my extensive research these service dog sounds like a load of hippy-dippy long haired woo

[LiveFreeOrDiet]

Epilepsy dogs alert if a seizure starts. Her breathing can stop from these attacks.
Because of my work, I have experience with hearing service dogs, which also come under ADA. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the service animal must be permitted to accompany the student to all areas of the facility where students are normally allowed to go. She may not be segregated from other students or spoken against in any way over the service animal. Frankly, the best strategy under ADA is to act like the dog is part of the student herself.

[The Hyperbole]

If you need a dog to alert you that one of your students is having a seizure then you shouldn’t be a teacher. From the tasks service dogs can do listed here not one can’t be preformed by any number of the adults (fellow students in some cases) that would be around the child at school. The whole “smell a seizure 30 mins before” is the load of woo I was speaking of, and not reason enough to negate any no pets allowed rule the school may have.

[Bronwyn]

I think the point is that the dog is focused on the child at all time, without fail. The same cannot be said of teachers and other adult staff in a school.

Proper supervision of children does not equate to an adult’s eyes being on a single child, watching, listening, and scenting for any sort of tweak, with constant vigilance for 8 hours straight, even in the potty or in the lunch room.

The dog has a purpose.

[The Hyperbole]

granted, and at home where mom might be in another room, or at night when the kid is in bed I can see the point, In school however, surrounded by teachers and schoolmates I think the dog is rather redundant as a warning signal, the whole potty break thing could be addresses more simply by having another kid or TA or student resource officer escort the pampered little brat.

[Jordan]

She’s pampered because she has epilepsy? Douchebag much?

[Bronwyn]

I think somebody here is being deliberately obtuse.

[The Hyperbole]

Okay, maybe I am being a bit of an ass. The little girl has epilepsy, that’s too bad and I feel sorry for her, I even concede that special accommodations may be called for. My main gripe is with the pseudo-science of these seizure dogs, when I read that no one knows how they do it, and they are born with the ability and can’t be taught it, and that they alert 15 mins to 12 hours ahead of time (big window), and that there are no scientific studies one way or the other, it all adds up to touchy-feely nonsense, not a legitimate reason to skirt school policy.

[Bronwyn]

I agree that a few minutes on NCBI turns up evidence of little systematic evidence. Point conceded on that issue.

Still, a single staff member’s complaint should not be sufficient to deny a girl her canine safety device.

[wareagle]

I expect teachers to teach, not to be medical professionals. But you keep letting your personal bias color the issue.

[The Hyperbole]

the dog is now a medical professional?

[Jordan]

Derp.

[Juice]

It looks like you’re trolling, but I’ll bite anyway. A seizure response dog alerts BEFORE a seizure starts. Somehow they sense a seizure coming before the person having the seizure or anyone else does.

[SugarFree]

Not according to his extensive research.

[Jordan]

Epilepsy’s just one a them made up faggot hippy diseases hurr durr.

[MSimon]

Well they could get the girl cannabis (Charlotte’s Web) and solve the problem. As soon as the legislature makes it legal and the med pot stores are set up. Real soon now. Some time in 2015 I’m told.

[Ted S.]

At least they didn’t call in the “school resource officer” to shoot the dog.

[Bronwyn]

This was a simple personnel issue. Staff member complains about service dog, staff member is told to stfu and get over it. Problem solved.

Why is this so hard?

[Almanian!]

this

[Jordan]

You’d think that one phone call from a lawyer would have solved this real quick.

[Drake]

At some point the parents realize the public school is worthless and private or parochial school is worth the investment. My wife and decided that the public high school was worth a lot of money to avoid.

[Jordan]

For sure, but in this case, a lawyer is already involved. I’m just surprised the school didn’t cave immediately.

[croaker]

That’s the purpose of the lawyer. This family is going to get their school taxes back, and then some, to pay for the Catholic School she’s going to now. Usually you have to pay the taxes and the tuition on top.

[Doctor Whom]

One lesson that public schools always manage to teach is FYTW.

[Almanian!]

On the bright side – one more student removed from the hell of public schools.

So that’s a win.

[BuSab Agent]

The article doesn’t say, but the problem could lie with the dog not being a real service dog. Many people are slapping a red vest on their ordinary pet and claiming it’s a service dog. A real service dog has been trained to within an inch of its life to be completely obedient in all circumstances. I owned a retired seeing eye dog (her owner had died and the dog was getting elderly and had heath issues so was put up for adoption rather than being re-assigned to another blind person). That dog NEVER needed a leash for anything. If I told her to sit and stay, she would die before she moved. It was the least dog-like dog I have ever owned.
So the problem is, a real service dog in a classroom situation can be guaranteed to be kept away from other children who might have dog allergies or phobias by the simple expedient of putting the service dog on one side of the room and children with dog issues on the other and. A faux service dog however will do dog-like things like wander, lick, bark etc.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

A real service dogs talks with an British accent.

[Jordan]

Ello. Wots all this then? You ‘avin a seizure m8?

[Rich]

It was the least dog-like dog I have ever owned.

I know some people whose severely autistic kid has a service dog. I’ve seen that dog, um, be harassed by a pack of other dogs and completely ignore them.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Sorta like how you deal with left-wing, pinko, socialist, commies, right?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Let’s see…an epileptic public school harasses her over her service dog…her parents put her in a private school which seems to have no trouble with her having the dog.

Now, tell us again how school choice is wrong because private schools simply dump the disabled students on the public schools.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Oops, a public school harasses an epileptic girl etc.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

But come to think of it, it seems the public school has some kind of epileptic fit when it sees the service dog…so maybe my first post was right.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It comes down to characters and personalities I guess. In this case, the teacher doesn’t seem to want to make nice. Personally, I’m the kind of guy that wouldn’t start trouble – especially if I were in a job where everyone claims all decisions are made “for the children.”

[RishJoMo]

Sometimes you jsut gotta hitem up hittem up.

http://www.WentAnon.tk

[croaker]

I’d say this girl is going to have a paid-for education all the way to a Master’s, courtesy of the taxpayers. And rightfully so. The teacher who pulled this stunt should be fired and stripped of teaching certification.

[jmomls]

Hopefully the school claims that the teacher is a Muslim, therefore dogs are haram and can’t be in classroom.

Everyone knows Islam trumps disability. Sorry, kid.

And this whole “gotta bring my dog everywhere” is utter and total nonsense. If your kid is unable to function anywhere without bringing livestock, home school the kid.