Canadian school district agrees to train staff to work with service dog of boy with Down syndrome

From CBC News in Canada:

The Brandon School Division says it now will cover cost of training staff to handle a service dog so that a boy with Down syndrome can go to school.

Earlier Sept. 13, Brandon mother Joanne Wilkinson said she was outraged her nine-year-old son, who has Down syndrome, couldn't attend school with his service dog.

Wilkinson said her son, Sam, acquired the therapy dog early in the summer to help him communicate and become more independent. Sam also has a hearing impairment and the black Labrador, named Hart, alerts him to noises.

Wilkinson had been trying to work with Brandon School Division all summer but said the division wouldn't let the dog in the school unless the family paid for an expert to fly in from the United States to train teachers how to handle the dog.

Later on Sept. 13 the school division backtracked and said it would pay for the cost of training teachers to handle the dog.