My name is Leslie Burnett. I am a special education director for a medium sized school district in Oklahoma. Before that, I was a special education teacher for many years. One year I had to take my little dog, Scout, to the vet and he was supposed to stay the day while I was at work. While we were there, some dogs came in very sick and died right there. I just didn’t want to leave him there, so I brought him with me to work. He had a crate and we stayed in the classroom. The first thing I noticed was the sheer joy it brought to children’s faces to see a “dog at school”. They loved petting him, walking him and just visiting with him. This was the spark.
After a few months, the spark grew to a flame. I wanted to have dogs in school with our students. During this time, I transitioned into the role as Director of Special Services for our district. Within a few months, I researched and found a breeder and purchased Belle. I always knew I wanted a Golden Retriever and a white one. Belle started coming to school with me shortly after she was fully vaccinated. She was puppy trained, but mostly she just visited with students and they would come read to her or show her a paper or we would just sit and pet. As she grew and developed relationships with some of the students with special needs, I found she was also a great source of calm for them. Belle became very attuned to children who were escalating or in crisis. That is really her specialty. If a student is in extreme crisis, she is the calm in the storm. Once I can get the child to assure me she is “safe” to enter, she will enter the classroom and go directly to the child and sit down. She will lay down so they can pet her and love her or just “be” with her. We talk about how to calm her by petting her and what do they need to be calmer.
Chip, on the other hand, is completely different. He works in the middle school and fits in so well with the teenagers. He is a “badonkydonk” as we lovingly refer to him. He is gentle, goofy, sweet and cuddly. The kids love to lay in the floor with him and work or visit. He has many kids that come to school just so they can “see Chip”.