Two families told their autism dogs not allowed in school

Donna Baldwin, her son Jack and service dog Jensen walk through a park on Thursday, April 14, 2016.

The Waterloo Catholic District School Board is taking about as hardline a stance as anyone in Canada on the issue of allowing service dogs for children with autism into its schools, one advocate for the issue says.

“This has been probably the toughest school board that we’ve had to deal with,” Ian Ashworth of Dog Guides Canada said Friday in an interview.

Ashworth says he’s worked with two families who want dogs allowed in local Catholic schools.

One of the families is Kitchener’s Baldwin family, whose son Jack attends St. Teresa Catholic Elementary School in Kitchener.

His mother, Donna Baldwin, says a service dog was finally approved for Jack after a 2.5-year wait.

It will take a year for the dog, Jensen, to fully bond with Jack.

Until then, the two are slowly being introduced to each other.

Baldwin wanted to continue that process at St. Teresa, asking for what she calls “public access” – Jensen being able to accompany Jack to school assemblies and similar events.

She says she met with the school’s principal, and was told that she could bring Jensen to the school’s front door if she was picking Jack up, but couldn’t take him inside.

Ashworth says he got the sense the principal could do “very little” to accommodate the dog.

“They were telling me they have to look at the needs of all children in the school, not just my son,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin says Jensen has been allowed into other facilities without issues, including hospitals and the church next door to Jack’s school.

“There are probably people there that have allergies … but it’s not really an issue,” she said.

The school board declined to comment on the specific cases of the Baldwins or the other family in a similar position.

School board officials say they’re open to service dogs, taking into account factors like whether there is a demonstrated need for the animal, if there is another way to accommodate the student, and if the student is the animal’s handler.

Ashworth says he’s seen autism service dogs allowed in schools elsewhere in Canada, with no negative impacts.

“Initially there’s some hestitation … but it becomes a very positive experience,” he said.

The issue has also caught the attention of Kitchener-Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife.

Based on the Baldwins’ situation and others, she plans to present a petition at Queen’s Park calling for employers and “public spaces” like schools to “understand that therapy dogs play an important role in ensuring accommodations for those with special needs.”

That understanding would ideally include some sort of identification for therapy dogs, the NDP MPP said.

Catholic board officials say their schools are not public spaces, except for during special events where members of the public are invited.