A Family Battles A School District Over Boy’s Service Dog [Video]

It was my understanding that all schools had to provide for children with service animals. This school district seems to be playing word games – that they will allow the dog, but that they won’t have anyone take care of the dog while he is assisting the little boy. Really? You can have hall monitors and teacher’s aides, but you can’t give someone that small chore in each of his classes? It would take little to no effort. Maybe watering and feeding the pup, or letting it go to the bathroom and cleaning that up. You guys do worse than that every day at school. I wonder who the bureaucrat is that decided to put their foot down and not help a little boy and his service dog?

From Fox News Insider:

7-year-old Austin Flateau has a brain malformation and needs his service dog, Paris, with him 24 hours a day to alert for seizures.

Unfortunately, Austin’s school district won’t accommodate his needs, so he hasn’t been able to attend the first grade.

Austin’s mother, Ericha, joined “Fox and Friends Weekend” this morning – along with Austin and Paris – and said that the district has said it will not allow any school staff to be the dog handler.

“I cannot afford to hire a third-party dog handler, and I also can’t afford not to go to work myself,” she explained, adding that she hopes she and the district can work out an arrangement.

Ericha said that Paris’ number one job is seizure alert, which she is trained to do by smelling chemical changes in Austin, and she is also trained in behavior disruption, which means she helps him calm down when he tries to speak and becomes frustrated. Besides causing seizures, Austin’s condition also affects his speech.

The school released a statement, saying, “The Franklin Public School District does not comment on specific student service issues … the district can state that it fully promotes and supports access for all individuals with disabilities, including those that require the assistance of service animals.”

The dog is a necessity for the boy and the mother is working and doing all she can. Considering all the freaking taxes we pay the various school districts, this Austin school district needs to okay the help with boy’s best friend. If you are telling the truth, then do your job and actually support this little boy. Talk is cheap.

Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Terresa Monroe-Hamilton is an editor and writer for Right Wing News. She owns and blogs at NoisyRoom.net. She is a Constitutional Conservative and NoisyRoom focuses on political and national issues of interest to the American public. Terresa is the editor at Trevor Loudon's site, New Zeal - trevorloudon.com. She also does research at KeyWiki.org. You can email Terresa here. NoisyRoom can be found on Facebook and on Twitter.

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