Our Roots

A day that started like any other would change the trajectory of Karen Storey’s life and the lives of so many others forever.

When a service dog named Ivan escorted a teacher with Parkinson’s disease to the Michigan school where Storey works as a special education teacher, she noticed how many students were captivated by the teacher’s canine assistant.

Even though Ivan was working and not allowed to interact with the kids, Storey could see that the kids had a spontaneous connection with the dog. Storey, who is also the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) facilitator for the Brighton Area School (BAS) District, knows first-hand how important it is to support kids from a multitude of angles.

“At that moment, I knew I had to find a way to get a dog into our school,” Storey said.

Storey approached the district’s superintendent, Dr. Greg Gray, with the idea to develop a dog-centric emotional support system throughout the schools. Storey was immediately given the green light, and as a result, Brighton became the first public school district in Michigan with its very own pack of emotional therapy dogs—the BAS Pack of Social Emotional Learning Dogs.

The program started to take shape back in 2006 with Caesar, a black Lab, who was the first dog to pilot the program. Caesar retired in 2019, and passed away in 2021, having helped countless kids and paving the way for all the dogs who would come after him.

A total of 20 dogs have served in the school district since the program was formed, and now there is at least one dedicated dog at each of the nine schools in the area.