ROCHESTER, N.Y. — As the school bell rings, students head to class at the School of the Arts in Rochester and so do their four-legged friends.
They're showing up for attendance in AP classes, morning news announcements and therapy dog club.
“We’re an art school,” gym teacher Sherry Vandermallie-Nash said. “So I asked around to some of the arts teachers. I said, 'You know, how can we incorporate the dogs within the classroom and photography classes?' There's a photo class over here taking pictures. So we bring them in, we use them in the classrooms, we use them in academics.”
Aside from being a furry friend to many, these dogs have been assigned a more important role.
“I've been teaching for 30 years, so I can't do half of what they do in 42 minutes in five minutes,” Nash said. “The impact these guys have when they walk into a room, the kids see them in the hallway. Staff, I mean, just like thanks. I needed that. That's what you hear all the time.”
Seeing many of the challenges students have to overcome outside of the school walls has left these tail-wagging therapists on a mission to help ease anxiety, boost motivation and make school days brighter for everyone.
“They're a huge part of our social-emotional learning program here,” Nash said. “But it just brings a whole new impression, especially when the only dogs a lot of these kids ever see are behind fences, barking at them and they get a new respect for the dogs. The best part is the dogs don't judge. So you come into any group and it might be a little bit heated in the group. But the dog's not going to judge you or that group and they're just going to lay there. And it just brings a whole new level of calm to the group.”
Greta the Great Dane travels an hour just to spend time with students like 11th-grader Brooklynn Graham.
“A lot of awful and crazy things happened during COVID,” student Brooklyn Graham said. “And one thing that happened was we had to put down my dog. And so just going to see dogs again really helped. And they really helped me to be calm and happy. I could be like I could be kind of stressed and in a class I get a little anxious and then the therapy dog is in that class. I'm like, ‘Oh, OK, that's going to be a good day. Nothing to worry about.’”
One of Graham’s favorite memories is their first-ever interaction.
“It was in that room over there where I first met Greta,” Graham said. “And so she's a Great Dane and they are really cute. My first reaction was like, 'Whoa, like this is the dog from the mystery gang from Scooby Doo.'"
Despite the success of therapy dogs within the school, Greta's owner says the real joy has been happiness.
“Happiness,” Greta’s owner Kathi Kane said. “You can see people's moods turn and change the looks on their faces. Sometimes they just come over and hug her and say thank you. You've really made a difference in my day and that means a ton.”
The dogs are helping through all the ups and downs that high school can bring.
The organization Therapy Dogs International has more than 90 teams in the Rochester area. However, only two schools in the Rochester City School District are using therapy dogs for students even though many teachers share that it's been doing wonders for mental health.
Seeing the success so far, teacher Sherry Vandermallie-Nash says her goal is to encourage more schools to do the same.