This week marked the beginning of the first academic year for the Uvalde school shooting survivors. To console the distraught pupils, 10 golden retrievers were waiting to meet them.
‘Comfort dogs’ are waiting to welcome back students to the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District’s schools as they begin the autumn semester.
Many pupils indicated worry and concern about returning to the classroom.
The deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School left 19 pupils and two teachers dead on May 24.
Zeke Wyndham, whose fourth grade class was down the hall from those targeted, told CNN on his first day back at school, “I’m really afraid and horrified after what happened at my former school, and I’m still scared and anxious.”
He said, “I can still hear the gunfire.”
Since the fatal shooting, Robb Elementary has been closed, and the students have been relocated.
Ten golden retrievers that had been brought in from all around the nation as comfort dogs were there when the students nervously stepped out of their automobiles.
Crisis response coordinator Bonnie Fear told CNN, “There was a lot of hesitation and fear about getting out of the van and coming inside the school.”
As a result, we put the dogs outdoors, and I think it helped some of the kids see the dog and decide, “OK, I guess I’ll go touch the dog,”
The puppies, according to fear, were dispersed across the schools to allay any jitters that pupils could be experiencing as they enter the campus for the first time after the tragedy.
Also requested soon after the May shooting were the comfort dogs.
The Lutheran Church Charities K-9 Comfort Dog Ministry brought the dogs in for the second time this year. For the next three weeks, the fluffy puppies will be visible on college campuses.
Two handlers are assigned to each dog, and they will make sure the puppies are meeting students all across the campus. Some dogs were stationed in the hallways, while others were placed close to the offices of the counsellors.
According to Fear, “it will change as needs develop, as the kids settle into a pattern, and where the dogs are required.”
“Our mission is to be there with individuals who are suffering and in need, and we show up and simply be with them in whatever they’re experiencing,” the organisation said.
On the first day of classes, the school district also displayed high-security precautions, such as a substantial police presence, cameras, and fences.
After suffering injuries in the shooting on May 24, A.J. Martinez showed up at a different school in the Uvalde district on Wednesday. The shooter entered his classroom and killed 19 of his classmates as well as his two teachers.
Martinez managed to conceal by crawling behind bags, but he was wounded in the leg by a gunshot.
‘Yeah I’m scared,’ he said CNN while wearing a shirt featuring images of his instructors and classmates who perished. My instructors and classmates forever, it said on his shirt.
As she dropped him off, his mother expressed her worries.
Kassandra Chavez said to CNN that she was “simply afraid” and “worried for my kids, and for the instructors, and the students that are coming back.”
Martinez is still haunted by the gruesome recollections of the incident. According to a family member, he expresses his hatred for the shooter and what he did to his classmates and teachers to his mother.
According to experts, being around dogs increases the brain’s production of good neurotransmitters, lowers blood pressure, and eases stress.
A person’s mood may be improved by walking, caressing, or even simply sitting with dogs, according to Dr. Jane Manno, a psychiatrist at the Cleveland Clinic.
Numerous studies have shown how owning a dog may improve one’s health and disposition. According to statistics, 48 million homes in America, or around one in three, are dog-friendly.
Simply being physically around animals causes the brain to produce certain calming chemicals.
‘Studies have indicated serotonin and dopamine [are released], so there’s a biological component. It lowers blood pressure and cortisol levels, which are indicators of stress.