Therapy Dog Helps St. Clair Shores Middle Schoolers Make Transition

ST. CLAIR SHORES, MI — Middle school years are tough. Everything is changing: Hormones are raging, bodies are maturing, and middle schoolers find themselves in a netherworld of fear, uncertainty and angst that is not quite childhood, but certainly not adulthood.

The transition will be a little easier for students at Kennedy Middle School after Principal Pat Donohue had his dog, Lightning, trained as a therapy dog, the St. Clair Shores Sentinel reported.

Donohue got the idea while he and his son attended the Olympic swimming trials in Omaha, NE, this summer and saw Olympians Michael Phelps and Missy Franklin interacting with a therapy dog between events.

The dog’s owner, a middle school science teacher, told Donohue she takes the dog to school a couple of times a week and says students seem less anxious as a result.

Lightning is up-to-date on his shots and was certified by a veterinarian to have the temperament to serve as a therapy dog.

“What we see at the middle school (is that) students come down to talk ... they’re having to, for the first time in their lives, be responsible for themselves, (and it) causes anxiety,” Donohue told the newspaper.

Lightning won’t be there just to help students relax — as he did during sixth-grade orientation when he sat calmly beside students stressed out about unlocking lockers, something they didn’t have to do in elementary school. The dog will be a resource for teachers and staff during his visits to the school a few times a week.

“Everyone has an off day,” he said.

» For more on this and other changes at Kennedy Middle School, go to candgnewspapers.com

Photo via Kennedy Middle School Facebook page