This week, people with mental health challenges or substance use disorder often end up in jail. But crisis response teams offer another way. Also, one year after the Mountain Valley Pipeline went into service, people who live directly in the pipeline’s path have received compensation. But not everyone. And, the Sacred Harp songbook gets an update for the first time since the early 1990s.
New Therapy Dog Arrives for First Day of Work at Mary C. Snow Elementary
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Students at Mary C. Snow Elementary School on Charleston’s West Side got to meet the school’s new therapy dog Monday. Two years ago, the students said goodbye to their beloved friend Paca, who had been one of the state’s first therapy dogs to work at a school. Paca had to leave because her owner, the school’s librarian, took a job out of state.
Now, two years later, Paca’s successor has arrived. His name is Axelle.
On Monday morning, the dog’s handler, music teacher Walter Tucker, introduced Axelle to students for the first time. The dog smiled, wagged his tail, and even licked some faces on his first day of work.
Credit Kara Lofton/ WVPB
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Axelle arrives to work at Mary C. Snow elementary school
Axelle has been trained to specialize in helping children cope with emotional stress and trauma, and to encourage students to enjoy learning. He’ll be working with all of the students, but especially with special needs students.
The students, teachers, community members, and even students in neighboring Lincoln County, helped raise thousands of dollars to purchase Axelle from a training facility in Kansas. It was the same facility where Paca came from, and they are also the same breed and color, a black English Labrador.
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