Stop fighting over therapy dog when laying off staff, says teacher who sued AAPS

ANN ARBOR, MI – A Wines Elementary School kindergarten teacher who sued Ann Arbor Public Schools for owning a therapy dog criticized the district for spending money on lawyers during a financial crisis.

Alexandria Fata spoke at the Wednesday, June 28 Board of Education meeting to criticize spending money while laying off teachers and staff.

“The district is going to continue to lose teachers while you care more about fighting over a dog than staffing schools and paying teachers what they deserve,” Fata said.

She was one of several community members who spoke out about the ongoing lawsuit, filed May 14. It alleges that Wines Principal David DeYoung “physically stole” Gracie, a therapy Bernedoodle at the school who was in Fata’s care, after Fata informed DeYoung she would be leaving her position at the school district.

The lawsuit claims Gracie exhibited behavioral problems, potentially making her unfit to be a therapy dog. It asks the district to return Gracie and compensate Fata for the value of her property, economic damages and physical and emotional distress. The Wines Elementary Parent Teacher Organization said in a May 23 letter that the dog did not belong to Fata but belonged to Wines Elementary School.

AAPS spokesman Andrew Cluley declined to comment on the matter Friday, saying the district does not comment on pending litigation.

Fata’s partner, Matthew Lasky, addressed the board, sharing positive feedback on Fata’s year-end evaluations because “she’s too humble to do it,” Lasky said.

“These comments from the administrator show that Lexi is a kind and respectable person, a leader with high moral character,” Lasky said. “Despite these words written by the administrator, he decided to remove Gracie from Lexi without any warning.”

Fata’s lawsuit says Gracie was trained with a shock collar, which would make her ineligible to ever become certified as a therapy dog.

Wines Elementary School parent Hayley Paholak wrote in a comment read at the board meeting that she had seen Gracie behave aggressively, particularly after the dog was removed from Fata’s care.

“The benefits and risks of keeping Gracie at Wines just don’t add up,” Paholak said. “It makes sense that Gracie would be returned to her owner, Lexi Fata. A mess like this or a much worse safety issue will happen again unless AAPS adopts policies on therapy dogs.

Kristen Moore, a Skyline parent and former Wines parent, said in a comment read at the meeting that when she wrote to the board of education with concerns about therapy dogs behavior risk, he was told they would work on creating procedures in the future. She described it as “locking the stable doors after the horse has run away.”

Cluley, asked about therapy dog policies, said he could not comment on therapy dogs.

“AAPS families want to know what we’re going to do about this now,” Moore said. “AAPS families also want to know why you paid exorbitant prices for cruel and inadequate training, and why you are hiring an outside attorney at full price instead of accepting one of the free resolutions you were offered . »

After Fata filed suit, a local dog breeder donated a Bernedoodle puppy to the school in June to be trained as a therapy dog in Gracie’s place.

Debbie Lasky wrote in a comment read at the meeting that the legal fees spent on the Gracie court battle were unnecessary given both the option of a new free therapy dog and the district’s financial crisis.

“I’m sure every teacher and staff member who has been laid off in the district would like to know how much money has been spent and is currently being spent on legal fees that could have been avoided,” Lasky said.

In May, the Ann Arbor school board approved the district’s plan to eliminate 141 staff positions, including 94 teachers, reducing its budget by $20.4 million for the coming year to accommodate a projected budget deficit of $25 million.

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