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Service animals are supposed to get free passes to go anywhere normal pets cannot. According to animal website Paw Nation, that almost wasn’t the case for Alaya the German Shepherd.
Alaya isn’t your typical seeing eye dog; in fact, she’s not a seeing eye dog at all. Instead, she comes from Seizure Alert Dogs for Life, a group that trains dogs to recognize the signs of an oncoming seizure and alert the humans present to the imminent attack. She’s able to use her extraordinary talent to help Andrew Stevens.
Andrew just wants to be a normal 12-year-old. Most of the time he is, but his health prevents him from being as carefree as boys his age ought. Andrew has a severe form of epilepsy that could cause him to suffer as many 20 possibly fatal seizures in a single day. To help monitor Andrew over such attacks, his parents purchased Alaya before Thanksgiving.
Alaya can sense when Andrew is about to have a seizure. When she does so, she licks Andrew’s face. This activates a magnet in the collar she wears around her neck, and the magnet triggers a stimulator in Andrew’s chest that can either stop the oncoming seizure or decrease its severity.
Andrew’s parents say Alaya has been invaluable in the short time they’ve had her. Now Andrew only has 8-10 seizures a day, rather than 15-20. Then what could possibly be the objection the school has to letting Alaya attend along with Andrew?
Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, where Andrew lives, have a strict policy about service animals. In an effort to weed out the true service animals from those possibly less professional, the district only allow animals trained by the nonprofit Assistance Dogs International.
The waiting list to receive an animal from ADI, however, sometimes lasts for 5-10 years. That’s why the Stevens instead raised the money to purchase Alaya and went with the for-profit group Seizure Alert Dogs for Life.
However, that is why the Fairfax County Public Schools don’t trust Alaya. They only go with animals from ADI because they feel that organization gives them a guarantee that the animals will be entirely professional and not disruptive in the classroom.
The school did agree to give Alaya a chance. She is currently attending classes with Andrew on a three-week trial period. If the school is convinced of her professionalism when the time is up, then she will be permanently allowed to go to school with Andrew.
I’m very glad that the Fairfax County Schools are granting Alaya this test. Still, I think the whole situation is ridiculous. Why only trust dogs from one particular nonprofit? Did the school district have negative experiences with other service dogs in the past? But most importantly: what is a little classroom disruption compared with Andrew’s life?
Even when Alaya isn’t able to activate Andrew’s stimulator she still saves him by sniffing, licking, and making eye contact with him, alerting others to his upcoming distress. I know schools must consider the safety of all of the students, not just one, but I fail to see the potential problem with Alaya. I really hope, for the sake of this poor boy who’s already suffered enough, that the school district will allow Alaya to keep doing her job.
Related Articles:
Pets and the Special Needs Child
The Companion Animal Life-Care Center
*(This image by Beverly & Pack is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
