Tyler Hurd, a 23-year-old junior at SCSU, hopes to be a special education teacher.
Hurd spent the past month at Technical High School in St. Cloud, working toward completing the 50 hours of secondary field placement required to earn his teaching license.
But student teaching, along with many other aspects of daily life, is not always simple for Hurd.
When Hurd was 14, he sustained a head injury while playing hockey. The injury resulted in epilepsy, a neurological disorder causing chronic seizures.
Because a seizure can take place at any moment, Hurd was matched with Emmitt, a 2 and a half-year-old black Labrador retriever, trained in seizure response.
Emmitt's $7,000 worth of training allows him the ability to know the difference between left and right, to open and close doors, turn lights on and off, and most importantly, he knows to stay with Hurd in the event of a seizure.
"He became my independence," Hurd said.
Because of the severity of Hurd's disorder, he brings Emmitt everywhere, including Tech High School, where he did his student teaching.
Tech High School has a large Somali population, most of whom are Muslim.
Hurd quickly began to notice many Somali students reacted with extreme fear and even disdain toward Emmitt.
According to Abdirahman Muhumed, program assistant at La Cruz Community Program, it can be difficult for Somali immigrants to adjust to America's love for dogs.
This is because within the Muslim faith, it is considered unclean to touch one. In fact, it is forbidden.
"You have to wash your hands seven times with water, soap and sand," Muhumed said.
Because of these beliefs, Hurd found it crucial to educate his students about his service dog.
He explained that Emmit is highly trained to stay near him at all times.
Furthermore, he let them know that under no circumstance would Emmit approach them. Emmit's focus is solely on Hurd.
Though Hurd's students quickly became accustomed to Emmit's presence, the rest of the school's student population was not informed of the dog's purpose.
Hurd said he soon began to notice animosity from students outside his classroom.
He witnessed students scream, run from, taunt and antagonize Emmitt. Hurd resorted to entering and leaving his class while the halls were empty, to minimize the chaos.
Last week, the situation came to a head when one of Hurd's students notified him of a threat.
"He told me there was a group of Somali students who wanted to beat and kill my dog," Hurd said.
Yet threats like these are against the Muslim faith, and Muhumed said it is likely a case of adolescent immaturity.
"Our religion is not allowed to kill a dog," Muhumed said. "That is forbidden."
Yet due to the nature of the threat, Hurd reported the incident to the assistant principal, Lori Lockhart.
"It was two days before she got back to me," Hurd said.
But concerning the incident, Lockhart said no threats were made.
"It was kind of a misunderstanding," Lockhart said.
According to Lockhart, the Tech student only meant that some Somali's don't like dogs and may want to hurt them.
Yet Hurd feels the whole situation was mismanaged.
He said Lockhart agreed to send an email to teachers alerting them of the incident and asking them to notify her of any threats they may be aware of.
According to Hurd, however, the email was never sent.
Hurd has since quit his field placement at Tech because he feels unsafe.
"I am not there because I don't want anything to happen to Emmitt-I feel threatened," Hurd said.
St. Cloud State has waived the remaining 15 hours of student teaching Hurd has yet to complete due to the circumstances.
Whether the administration at Tech High School feels they could have done more to educate their students about the purpose of service dogs is yet to be confirmed.
"We have a strong working relationship with the public schools," said Kate Steffens, dean in the college of education.
Steffens said she plans to set up a meeting with both the principal and vice principal of Tech High School in an attempt to come up with solutions.
"We want a win-win situation," Steffens said.
Yet Hurd feels it all may be a little too late.
"Because he's seizure response, he has a right to be anywhere I go," Hurd said. "To be threatened in public is a disability rights issue."
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