Pet-tential at Scituate High School

Students and teachers at Scituate High School are paws-itively captivated with the school’s new mascot. Peggotty, the five-month-old lab poodle mix, spends her days in room 107, where students and staff from all over the school can’t help but come in to say hello. Ms. Deborah Anstead, a biology teacher at SHS, has taken on the task of being Peggotty’s handler. But whose idea was it to bring a therapy dog into the construction maze known as Scituate High School? When asked what prompted her to bring Peggotty to the high school, Anstead replied, “the Stress Less Laugh More last year campaign,” which included bringing in service dogs for one day to solicit a less anxious and more positive environment at SHS.

Ms. Anstead’s campaign to integrate a service dog into SHS culture began with her request to bring in her daughter’s service dog, Lady, to meet the students of SHS. The reaction to Lady was vital for Peggotty’s arrival.

“I just could not believe the response kids had,” Anstead stated in our interview, “people of all walks of life in the high school came down to see her, and I knew that it would be an effective way to really break down barriers.”

The success that last year’s Stress Less Laugh More campaign found opened up tremendous room for opportunity to improve student’s welfare at the high school. After teachers observed great responses to the service dogs during the Stress Less Laugh More Campaign, Ms. Anstead recalls that at a staff meeting, Mr. Wargo stated, “I would love to have that opportunity for our students here.”

For student Sean Dauphine, “when you get the opportunity to take out Peggotty or to train her, you feel like you’re part of something important, not just a regular class or school”. This leads to a better environment in class and around the school. It makes him “ten times happier,” and has brightened many students’ days.

Both Ms. Anstead and Mr. Wargo did not take the student body’s reaction lightly. They started the process of allowing a stress-dog to enter Scituate High School: research, planning, and scrutiny. For each of Ms. Anstead’s classes, she has the students refrain from petting Peggotty but allows the students to learn the proper commands and hand signals to train their furry friend. The opportunity to have a living organism grow and change in front of several biology classes is truly a diff-fur-ent way of learning.

Few schools in the Massachusetts schooling community have the luxury of experiencing the love and admiration that this dog gives to every student. Peggotty serves as a model for patience, responsibility, and compassion. As Ms. Anstead puts it, “high school is tough enough,” but letting the students unwind and release their stress is making Scituate High School a more friendly place. With Peggotty available in class, students will continue to have an outlet for relieving their stress, as well as a unique learning experience.