Daily Archives: January 15, 2018

Therapy dog program benefiting students in Eau Claire

Stand Up for Public Ed,

Therapy dogs

WQOW.com: Class is back in session after Thursday’s storm for more than just students.

Students at DeLong Middle School in Eau Claire had a special visitor Friday. Nelson the therapy dog stops by every other Friday to hang out with students. Along with his owner and handler Kelly Christianson, the two visit students in a Special Education Class and an eighth grade English Class.

Organizers said for the most part it’s just that, an opportunity for students to hang out and spend time with a dog. What the kids get out of it, though, extends much further.

“They’re unconditional, Nelson starts whining when I start pulling up in the parking lot here so he knows he’s coming in to see the kids. I’ve seen students in other classrooms where they might be sad or mad, turn it right around just by Nelson walking in the room. There’s been some pretty cool things that we’ve seen happen,” Christianson said.

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Nonprofit working to make schools statewide LGBTQ+ inclusive

Stand Up for Public Ed

Madison

Channel3000.com: Shawn Fredricks, a former health and physical education teacher at Beloit Memorial High School in Beloit, described always separating her students between boys and girls.

Though she considered herself a pretty accepting person, Fredricks said until she went to a training hosted by the organization Gay Straight Alliance for Safe Schools, a Madison based nonprofit advocating for LGBTQ+ youth, she was not aware about how much she did not understand about identity.

“I would say ‘boys over here and girl(s) over there’ without giving it much of a second thought,” she said.

The small staff at GSAFE has been training Wisconsin educators for the past decade in creating a safe and supportive educational setting for students who do not fit into gender conforming labels.

In the past five years, the educational sessions shifted focus to highlight the experiences of transgender students as well as LGBTQ+ students of color.

“Historically transgender students and LGBTQ+ students of color were excluded from the conversation,” Brian Juchems, the senior director of education and policy at GSAFE, said.

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