Stories you might have missed from across Wisconsin.
De Pere: School district has full-time therapy dogs in all elementary schools.
Petting a dog always makes you feel better. Dogs can help calm anxiety and even help children to read and write. That’s the thinking at the De Pere school district who have added full-time, district owned therapy dogs to all their elementary schools. The experiment began in 2021 when Charlee, a chocolate Lab was brought in to work with students at Dickinson Elementary. Charlee was so successful, that the district put dogs in all their elementary schools. This year, a Berne doodle named Oakley is in training to work with 5ht and 6th graders at Foxview Intermediate School. Dickenson’s principal Luke Herlache told WPR that he and his team were the first staff in the district to advocate for a district-owned therapy dog in their school. District owned dogs are different from other therapy dogs that might visit. They are in school full-time and have multiple staff handlers. Herlache also said that Charlee has been very effective at calming students down who are feeling too upset to be in the classroom. Charlee also helps ease anxiety in students. Charlee also is an educational tool. Children practice their literacy skills by writing letters to Charlee, and other students write back as Charlee. This is another reason to love dogs! Full Story
Wauwatosa: Tosa Green Summit returns with a new site.
The Tosa Green Summit, the annual, free sustainability fair has two mottos, “Build Awareness” and “Take Action”. The fair is taking place on two Saturdays, September 7 and 14. People who’ve taken part in the event before know about the lines of cars filled with people ready to surrender their recyclables. What they don’t know is that this year there are some changes. The first is the location. Previously, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District hazardous waste collection site was at City Hall. This year it moves to the Wauwatosa Public Works Yard. The second big change this year is that there won’t be any “e-waste” collection at the event. The Wisconsin Department of Natural resources defines “e-waste” as used electronics. Instead of dropping their e-waste at the event, people are encouraged to take their e-waste to RD Refrigerant Depot. The Tosa green Summit is also going to feature a recycling drive, speakers and exhibitors. Full Story
Oshkosh: School Board votes against banning books.
In a victory for free speech, students in the Oshkosh school district will not be denied access to books with gender identity themes. Last week the Board of education voted against banning six books. The meeting was not without drama however as two people had to be escorted out of the building. There was a resolution in front of the Board to ban books dealing with sexual orientation like “Gender Queer” at Oshkosh West High School. in a vote of 6 to 1, the Board rejected the motion. There was a lot of debate during the meeting. According to reports in the Oshkosh Northwestern, community members got up throughout the meeting to defend maintaining students access to “Gender Queer”, “Fun Home”, Let’s Talk About It”, Milk and Honey”, Anatomy of a Boyfriend” and “Anatomy of a Single Girl”. Three supporters of the ban disrupted the meeting with cries of “blasphemy”. Another outburst from a supporter was met with boos and profanity. Two police officers were asked to escort the man from the meeting. Another supporter was removed after he mocked a disabled speaker resulting in public comment being closed early. Full Story
