Monday, February 19th, the Rocky staff, admin and teachers had a staff meeting and one of the points addressed was dogs on campus or the “service dog” policy, regarding how to handle students and staff who bring their dogs onto campus when they are not really allowed to. Recently, students have taken dogs to school that aren’t officially allowed to be here and the school has had to be more strict about the policy.

There are officially two service dogs and one staff dog actually allowed on campus on a daily basis. In order to make a dog official, there is a certain process to follow. If a student has an identified disability, they may qualify for a service animal, but it must be trained to support the identified disability. Following that, the school needs to approve the training based on the documentation provided.

There are dogs brought in that school administrators are unaware of and there have also been a couple other animals brought in, such as lizards and even a parrot. If caught with any unofficial animals, students will be asked to take them home unless they’ve been approved to come in for a class project or something like that.

It may sound fun to have your best friend follow you around all day, but unfortunately, unless the dog provides a service and has a purpose for being here, you should leave it home for the well being of Rocky students and their education.