Thomas Jefferson Highschool

Start Date: 2022-04-19

Description: HOPE teams responded to high levels of stress at Thomas Jefferson high school. The handler dog teams that were presented today were Dean // Feona and Debbi // Mily. These teams were also present at this school last month for a school suicide so a lot of the children were excited to see them again. This deployment was well organized thanks to Megan. Before we got there, Megan had made a spreadsheet of the times each class was coming with the number of students that the dogs were going to be seeing each period. She did a great job by not over crowding the room for the dogs. As the students left, she took feedback from the students and these were the following comment: "Can we have therapy dogs everyday?" && "This is amazing, I love when the dogs come!". One of the teachers made a comment saying "Wow they came into school tired with headaches and now they are leaving with smiles". Megan also had "stress meter" handout for the students, when students came in they circled "I'm really stressed!" and by the end of the visit they would turn the paper around and pick "Im okay, not really stressed. As a team leader I made sure that the teams were well and not stressed during the visit and also made sure that they took breaks when needed and was even there to hold the leash when the handler needed to go to the restroom. When the classes would change, Overall, it was a great experience!

Agency: Thomas Jefferson Highschool
Teams: Dean & Feona // Debbi & Mily
Region: