Autistic boy wins fight to bring service dog to class | News

HILLSBORO, Ore. – After a three-year battle with the Hillsboro School District, a young autistic boy has won his fight to bring his service dog to class.

Due to a federal investigation, the school district had to make a decision, and Oregon’s attorney general laid it out bluntly: It could be a long, expensive lawsuit. So, Scooter Givens’ service dog, Madison, will be allowed during a trial period at Patterson Elementary.

“We’re thrilled; we’re absolutely thrilled,” said Scooter’s mother Wendy.

By being tethered to Scooter, Madison keeps him from bolting and can find him if he does run off. He also helps to calm the 10-year-old during violent tantrums.

“Madison’s trained to touch him or nuzzle him and kind of distract him from that,” said Wendy.

The debate really hinged on whether Madison is a service dog or a therapy dog. Therapy dogs are not covered by the ADA but service dogs are. And service dogs can be used for people with autism.

“A therapy dog to me wouldn’t be highly trained,” Wendy said. “It isn’t tasked trained. It couldn’t do the tethering. It couldn’t do the behavior disruption. So I knew all along this was not a therapy dog. I think the school district may have just been saying that to try and slip this through.”

“We felt that it wasn’t necessary to bring in the dog,” said Beth Graser, spokeswoman for the Hillsboro School District. “If we had seen early on that the student was not able to access his education, we would have allowed the dog a lot sooner.”

Now that Madison will be by Scooter’s side, the Givens said they believe their son won’t be as distracted or distracting.

“He’ll be more calm, which is going to help improve the access to education, because he’s going to be able to learn,” said Wendy. “He’s not going to be at this elevated state. He’ll be down more where he can learn easier.”

“It’s like the school’s giving him a pencil, and we’re giving him a pencil with an eraser. The pencil still works, but if you add an eraser there’s a little bit more room for error,” said Scooter’s father, Eric.

Schools all over have dealt with this, including in Canby. Before Madison can go to class, the district and the family need to work out the details, including who will pay for the dog’s handler and how long the trial will last. And then there’s the issue of what happens if someone’s afraid or allergic. Those details will also have to be worked out.