Nacho & Quessa have been a vital support and motivator to the students and staff at Sheppard PS since March of 2020. This year, without any notification to the Sheppard Community, the WRDSB school board made the decision to ban these wonderful, kind and caring animals from the school property.
Our schools need all the support and resources they can get in these difficult times. Taking away a coping strategy, and companion, from our students is cruel. There is no cost to the school, there is no liability to the school, and there are many studies that show what a benefit it is to have access to support animals.
Bring back our support dogs! Bring back Nacho and Quessa!
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About the Canine Assisted Intervention (CAI) Program
The CAI program was approved by the WRDSB in March of 2020. The program has run successfully at Sheppard PS since that time. There have been no complaints to the School Council or to Administrators, and there has never been a reported issue with the program.
The program is run with dogs that are trained and certified by the National Service Dogs organization. Nacho & Quessa are classified as "Facility Dogs" which means they are trained and certified to work in a 1 to many environment, instead of a 1 to 1 environment that a "Service Dog" is trained in.
The dogs are trained to provide support to anyone experiencing emotional or physical dysregulation, distress, anxiety, discomfort or nervousness. Nacho and Quessa also each have a handler, trained by NSD, available on-site whenever the dogs are present.
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Why has the WRDSB Removed Nacho & Quessa?
While no formal communication has been provided from School Administrators or from the School Board, emails with Superintendent Jay Fedosoff have received the following as the reason for the program's removal.
"In the Sheppard scenario, Nacho and Quessa are not connected to any individual student with a disability. Additionally, there is no documentation (see AP 2020, Appendices) to support that an application was made for an individual student with a disability. Instead, they have been used as a blanket resource to support anyone who may find comfort in doing so. While meaningful or potentially desirable, this does not fit the definition of a service animal by the AODA or the WRDSB." - Jay Fedosoff WRDSB Superintendent
AP2020 has been in place since 2019, and Nacho & Quessa have been at Sheppard since March of 2020. Why is this policy about "Service Dogs" being applied to "Facility Dogs" now?
This question remains unanswered.
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What Can You Do?
Please sign the petition below, and provide any stories you have of using the CAI program at Sheppard.
Email Jay Fedosoff at WRDSB - Jay_Fedosoff@wrdsb.ca
Follow along with our advocacy efforts by visiting bringnachoandquessaback.ca