Two seperate school boards in Missouri are preventing those who need dog assistants to school, either as a student or teacher. From the Kansas City Star:
Sue Thompson and Karen Meinke have never heard of each other, but they're both fighting in separate parts of Missouri to bring trained dogs with them into public schools to help them with their disabilities.Thompson, 46, has been in a two-year dispute about her dog with her employer. Though currently on leave, she works as a teacher's aide for the Special School District of St. Louis County, which provides special education services to students. The district told Thompson in 2002 that she could use a wheelchair and cane but could not bring her new support dog to work. Thompson's right leg, hip and spine were damaged in a 1997 accident, and her service dog, Droopy, helps her as she walks, providing balance, picking up items for her and giving an "extra bit of energy to the left," she said.
About 260 miles southwest of St. Louis County, Karen Meinke, a 14-year-old student at Pierce City Middle School, was told in April that her service dog, Zeus, could not attend school with her. She has trouble walking due to hip dysplasia, a condition that causes hip deterioration, and because she sometimes becomes dizzy from medication she takes for bipolar disorder, said her mother, Cathy Kelley of Wentworth.
"This isn't something where you wake up one morning and say, `Let's get a service dog,'" said Kelley. She explained people often wait years for a dog and must show evidence that one is needed before agencies will give the highly trained animals to new owners.
That's got to be a violation of several laws--not the least of which would be the Americans With Disabilities Act...
Posted by: Victor at May 24, 2004 08:01 AMLooks as if your link to the KC Star might be fubar. I found this article, which concentrates on Miss Meinke's situation, and includes some pretty good information on which laws are being broken.
Posted by: Victor at May 24, 2004 08:15 AMThe link works, but it appears that in the last couple of days, the KC Star has joined the "must register" crowd of newspapers, so that's the screen you get now. If you decide to register, and then choose "go back to where I was before registering" the article comes up.
Posted by: Jeff Soyer at May 25, 2004 09:09 AMWhile it is true that there is discrimination against people who have to use service animals, you kind of have to understand the position in which you put the administrators of a school. The first kid who has an alergic reaction to the dog is going to win a big-money lawsuit. What's more, in a special ed environment, who's to say that one day some random kid won't make an aggressive move toward the dog's person and the dog might snap at it. People in this country are too lawsuit happy to take that kind of risk, especially in a school.
Posted by: Annika at May 31, 2004 10:22 PM