Herald Journal Blog

A 23-year-old student teacher from St. Cloud State University has a black lab trained to protect him when he has seizures left over from a childhood injury. He was student teaching, with the dog as his constant companion, at a high school in St. Cloud in hopes of teaching special education someday. The threat came from a Somali student who is Muslim, according to the May 12 St. Cloud Times. “The Muslim faith, which is the dominant faith of Somali immigrants, forbids the touching of dogs,” Dave Aeikens said in the St. Cloud Times. The Somali students taunted his dog and one threatened it. The student teacher was so worried about his specially-trained dog being hurt, he left the school in late April, 10 hours short of finishing the 50-hour course. The diversity coordinator for the school district said, “I’m not sure where the breakdown comes into play here.” Let me spell it out for him. This is the United States. In the culture of the United States, dogs not only are our pets, they work for us as service animals. Somalis and others from Muslim cultures must adapt to the dominant culture. Public universities shouldn’t have to accommodate select immigrant groups and disrupt student teaching programs on that account.