School Counseling Week '24: Therapy Dogs in Coventry

if I'm ahead you'll hear Rosie you know Rosie's [Music] here hi I'm Lori LeBron I am a school counselor at alen sha Feinstein Middle School in Centre the high school has Cooper as you saw the middle school has Rosie and because we now have a pet therapy a therapy dog policy our police SRO actually is able to take their new um comfort dog into our building they just know this is what you do you know when they come up is it okay if I Pat her is it okay if I Pat her and so they're very kind and [Applause] respectful good girl good girl nice joban you hear the kids at when I greet them in the morning they get dropped off you know in the front of the building and the parents are waving and they're smiling maybe she's wearing a tutu that morning or maybe she's wearing a little birth they had or it makes such a huge difference and I it warms my heart so much I can't even tell youly this staff I think loves her more than the kids some days they will come in my office and say can I just sit with her for a few minutes and and it just instantly lowers your blood pressure and kind of let you reset a little bit to go back and finish the day it's an in in-depth process when you're going for this type of certification and and and whatnot and we're continuing as well cuz we want to get some higher level CTS as well I so proud like I'm really proud but I also see her amazing abilities to to make people happy every single time she's here it's amazing it's actually miraculous at times and I am wishing all of my fellow counselors a happy School counseling week um honestly all support professionals should be included in that in that week um and just wishing you an opportunity to stop and think about all of the amazing uh work that you do with our students and um how grateful that I am as your former Risa president um that everyone is continuing to do this wonderful work and supporting our kids in Rhode Island