Rudyard Area Schools will have a new, furry addition to their district in April to improve school safety and mental well-being.
Staff and students will welcome in a 14-month old male yellow lab, named Gator.
Gator is part of the Zebra K9 safety dog team from Waterford, Michigan and will be handled by Carlos Molina III, who is a Rudyard resident and school alumnus.
Molina III is undergoing intensive training downstate with Zebra K9.
The dogs at Zebra K9 receive a minimum of twelve months of training. The first several months are focused on drive and sociability and the last couple months are dedicated to imprinting the dogs on the odors they are to detect, whether it be firearms and explosives or narcotics.
All Zebra K9 handlers, regardless of their previous experience, spend several weeks with the Vice President of Canine Operations bonding and training with the canine assigned to them. They are certified to the standards set forth by the National Association of Professional Canine Handlers of which their VP of Canine Operations is a certified master trainer. They must also formally train for a minimum of four hours per week to maintain their certification.
Rudyard is the seventh school district in Michigan, and the second in the Upper Peninsula, to employ a Zebra K9 safety dog team. St. Ignace is the other school district.
The full-time on-site safety dog team’s focus is on firearm and explosives detection, while also providing a unique form of social/emotional support to students, teachers, administrators and parents.
Tom McKee, Superintendent of Rudyard Area Schools, is looking forward to the impact Gator will have on the over 600 students in his district.
"I’m so excited for this opportunity for our students, our staff, and our school community as a whole to welcome a new addition to our team. Gator's main job is to support and provide a level of security to the building as a whole," McKee stated.
But Gator will be doing so much more to benefit the students and staff.
"Gator is going to act as a security dog and do a daily sweep of lockers and common areas as he has been trained to sniff out ammunition and explosives. But he also is going to provide instrumental interaction between our students, him and his handler," McKee said.
Gator will help those students with special needs or fears.
"There was a study done about reluctant readers and not wanting to read in front of their peers. A school district in the south introduced a dog for those readers to read to and their achievement scores and confidence and reading went through the roof. That’s what we’re looking for," McKee said.
This decision to have Gator part of the Bulldog family was not a spur-of-the-moment call.
"Rudyard Area Schools started looking at providing our students with a comfort dog early this school year. After seeing how much it cost to train and seeing all of the hoops that you had to jump through, it was just one of those projects that we put on the back burner, then about two months ago, we saw our neighbors in Saint Ignace had worked with a company called zebra K9. I called down to their superintendent and she shared some amazing data with the transformation that has happened at her school. That’s when I called zebra K9 and spoke with Greg the owner about what he could do for our students in our school. When we got the information from Greg, we took that to our Board of Education and started filling them in on how it would be paid for what services it would provide in the research that the administrative team had done around the idea of having a dog in the school. The principals a key rule, and doing the research on student achievement and the reduction of the whole school, anxiety and how they are related to having a dog in your building," McKee explained.
There is no direct cost to the district or community to have this program.
"This position is 100 per cent grant funded through the 31aa grant from Michigan which is designed for safety, security and mental wellness of students. There’s only certain ways that you can spend this money and because our school already has a lot of safety measures in place. This was the next step. We had to think outside of the box. A lot of credit goes to Mrs. Peterson and Mr. Folkersma. Over the next 10 weeks, we are going to collect data and see if this program is one that we are going to invest in for years to come," McKee continued.
Greg Guidice, Zebra K9 founder, president and CEO, says there are two specific reasons why a program like this is needed and should be supported.
"First, with the proliferation of gun violence across our country and, particularly, in schools Zebra K9’s safety dog teams reduce the probability of an active shooter event happening. Second, the pandemic has had a dramatic negative effect on school-age children academically and socially. The social and emotional support our canines provide reduces the stressors children face improving their well-being. The combination of safety and mental health contribute to an improved learning environment," Guidice said.
The first day of school for Gator and Molina III is Tuesday, April 2.
