POCOMOKE CITY – Pocomoke High School’s newest staff member greeted students with a wagging tail and a kind expression as he roamed the blue and gold halls this week.
Monday marked the first official day of school for Rudy, a 7-year-old golden retriever now acting as a therapy dog at Pocomoke High School (PHS).
“The kids love him,” Principal Annette Wallace said. “Everybody’s always excited to see Rudy.”
After hearing of a successful therapy dog program at a New Jersey school, Wallace jumped on the idea. She thought a friendly canine would be a great addition to PHS, where the vast majority of students — 70 percent — comes from households of poverty in southern Worcester County.
“So much of what we have to do before we do any academic work has to be relationship based,” Wallace said. “Our kids come to us with a lot of emotional baggage.”
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