The suspect<\/a> later died. Evergreen High School Principal Skyler Artes sheltered in the main office with students and staff and remained at the school until the last person had left.<\/p>\nAfter the shooting \u201ceverybody was devastated, a lot of sorrow, a lot of grief, a lot of uncertainty about how to proceed,\u201d Artes said <\/p>\n
Some of the nonprofit\u2019s dogs provided support at a family reunification site.<\/p>\n
Artes decided to train with Canine Companions to be a support dog handler after seeing the positive impact the animals had on the students and staff.<\/p>\n
Volunteers with Canine Companions continued to bring dogs to the school in the days following the shooting, and Artes decided support dogs should be a permanent presence at the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that they are calm, that they\u2019re generally peaceful and attentive makes them good at providing that ongoing, consistent, stable source of support, affection and quiet when people need it most,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Even though the dogs are a relatively new presence at the school in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, they were crowned prince and princess at the homecoming football game last week and donned royal capes and crowns as they paraded through the football field.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second that I see them in the hallway, or I go out of my way to come see them, it just brightens my day, it makes it so much better,\u201d said Maddie Cornwell, a senior. \u201cThat kind of innocent joy and love that they have to share, they just give it to humans so easily and it just makes you so happy to see them play and run around.\u201d <\/p>\n
Artes is Norene\u2019s handler, and Polenta is assigned to lead counselor Amy Wells, who is also a volleyball coach and brings Polenta to practices. Wells also completed the handler training at Canine Companions.<\/p>\n
The organization starts training support dogs from the time they are puppies when they start learning dozens of tasks, from following simple commands like sitting and staying, to more refined skills, including how to respond to students or teachers going through a difficult moment. They also learn how to be a stable presence in areas of the school that could trigger trauma, said Paige Mazzoni, chief executive of Canine Companions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s really powerful about dogs in this type of work is that they have a lot of heart, they have high intelligence, they respond very well to people and to forming a partnership, and it\u2019s really the power of the human-canine bond,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Quinn McEvers, a senior, said she makes it a point to see the dogs or pet them each school day because it always puts her in a good mood.<\/p>\n
Having \u201cthese dogs in the school is amazing because when we have tests, when there\u2019s a stressful moment, when the weather\u2019s bad, when, honestly, anything puts our mood kind of down, the dogs are there,\u201d McEvers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would think people do a lot better in school when they\u2019re actually in a good mood or when they\u2019re excited about going to school,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Research shows that shootings at schools can lead to lower test scores and declines in students\u2019 ability to concentrate and focus but Evergreen saw the opposite, Artes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw our AP test scores go up,\u201d she said. \u201cWe also had a 100% graduation rate in a year that was extraordinarily difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a dog is assigned to a facility, they stay there for eight to 10 years, when the animal retires.<\/p>\n
Artes said she plans to get more support dogs once Norene and Polenta leave their posts.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving a steady presence, an animal that doesn\u2019t really care what\u2019s going on and loves you anyway,\u201d she said, \u201cthat unconditional love and support, that is valuable no matter what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
____<\/p>\n
Rodriguez reported from San Francisco. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EVERGREEN, Colo. — With wagging tails and kind eyes, the four-legged staff members at Evergreen High School welcome students each morning, walk the halls and visit classrooms to offer a loving, calming presence and moments of joy to a student body still processing a school shooting. Norene and Polenta, two golden Labs, joined the high…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}