By Angie Cox and Gabby Darling
To give students at Branford High School additional support and a break from the stress of school, Officer Rich Simons recently brought his dog, Heidi, an emotional support dog, to the school as part of the Paws With A Cause program.
Simons and Heidi have done this program with area schools since 2020, and have started paying frequent visits to Branford High School this year.
Jennifer Stackpole, a health teacher, enjoys the smiles from the students that visits from the dogs like Heidi generates. The Paws for a Cause program has brought a variety of law enforcement officers and their canine partners to the school throughout the year.
“I love seeing how the students react to Heidi,” said Stackpole, who has helped organize and coordinate the visits as part of a “mental health matters” initiative. “I’ve been teaching for a long amount of time and I’ve never seen a tool help them (the students) this much.”
You can sense the positive energy at BHS. The group visits each location, offering wellness visits that benefit children. Students benefit from the “paws” in a busy school day and benefit from interacting with Heidi, a yellow labrador retriever.
“How we’re able to create a community that has a safe space and gets along with each other. It’s about creating a place where people can have a safe place,” said Elliot Tutas, a student at Branford High School.
Simons said he started down the extraordinary path with the help and approval of the Yale Police Department.
“I joined [Paws for a Cause] to help comfort people” he said. “And so I and Heidi can support people that go to Yale and to students from different schools.”
Heidi’s Valentine’s Day visit was tied to a special survey the group developed to provide compassionate response and support to the BHS community, Stackpole said.
Heidi’s trademark is wearing special collars in the school colors of the institution the team is visiting. Rich also wears a K-9 officer vest and a specially designed service uniform. He travels with Heidi in a Yale PD unmarked vehicle with her “wardrobe” laid out in the back.
The dogs and their handlers are trained with the help of the New York-based Puppies Behind Bars (@puppiesbehindbarsorganization). The Groton Police Department was the first to be designated in Connecticut in 2019. a service dog team for a facility through PBB.
According to Zip06, students who are studying abroad and apart from their families benefitted from the comfort provided by visiting with emotional support dogs like Heidi. The team is on the job five days a week, with an ever-growing list of requests for more visits.
Heidi has her own Instagram account – @Ofcheidi_yalepd. Rich has gone on to help Harvard PD, Princeton PD, Brown University PD, and Southern Connecticut State University PD bring in PBB-trained teams in a short period of time.
