MOUNT VERNON – When a black labrador puppy walked into his life in 2000 Derek Fisher had no idea the dog would become his best friend, his co-worker and a calming lifeline for scores of troubled adolescents.
Fisher named him Dallas, a nod to the Cowboys, his favorite NFL team.
Dallas was the first of four labradors who have served alternative school students over the last 25 years. None had formal therapy training, no diplomas, no certificates, no special service dog vests, but each shared a keen sense of knowing then their love and caring would help kids.
In 2000 Fisher began an eight-year tenure as a therapist/counselor in the alternative center created by Juvenile Court Judge James Ronk. Located in the Chestnut Street building now occupied by Veterans Services and the Board of Elections, the center was a place for students who had been suspended from their home schools to complete supervised academic work.
Many of the kids had behavior or attendance issues. Negative attitudes were common.
“I had been looking for a place to keep Dallas during the day when Carol Everett of the court’s probation office said, ‘You’re not going to leave that puppy home alone. You’re going to bring him to work,’” Fisher recalled. “She made him feel right at home.”
It was the start of an eight-year Fisher-Dallas partnership.
“Dallas grew up with the alternative center kids,” Fisher said. “He would be sleeping or just lying under my desk, but when kids came to my office upset, even crying, Dallas reacted instinctively. He just knew he was needed. Kids would sit on the floor with him, pet him, talk to him. Most times, they would calm down so that we could talk.
“Dallas was a therapy dog in every sense of the word.”
Man and dog worked together, played together, watched the Cowboys together until the tragic day when Dallas was struck and killed by a car.
Fisher’s grief lasted much longer than the two days he took off from work.
Leo the labrador was part of Fisher’s final two years as an administrator at the alternative school
“Leo was more of a mascot than a therapy dog,” Fisher said, “but he too was attuned to how kids were feeling. Like Dallas, he knew how and when to be a calming presence.”
In 2010 Fisher began his current role as student services principal at the Knox County Career Center. A couple of years ago he had to put Leo down.
Meanwhile, the legacies of Dallas and Leo were passed to Jesse, the labrador retriever of Barbara Waite, special education secretary and office manager at The Learning Center, now a K-12 alternative school, located in the former Mount Vernon West Elementary.
“We got Jesse to be a hunting dog for my husband but she had a gentle, loving side,” Waite said. “When she had the camo collar on she knew she was a hunting dog but when the pink collar went on she was mommy’s dog.”
Jesse accompanied Waite to her office almost daily, wagging her tail to the petting of students and staff who greeted her at the gate to Waite’s office. Students who were angry or upset were allowed in to be snuggled and comforted by an understanding Jesse.
“She just knew,” Waite said of Jesse’s instinctive awareness of kids’ needs.
Students and staff were heartbroken by Jesse’s unexpected cancer death at age 6.
In the late summer of 2020 Waite and her husband got Gracie, a chocolate lab who, like Jesse, accompanies Waite to school virtually every day.
“I have seen some amazing things with both Jesse and Gracie,” said Joe Mazzari, director of the Learning Center. “Kids who were upset, even combative, or refusing to take their medication would spend time with the dogs, talking to them – even laying on them – then calm down.”
In an earlier interview Waite described the day a teacher brought a crying elementary girl to her office.
“The girl sat down on Gracie’s bed and Gracie moved as close to her as she could,” Waite said. “Gracie snuggled against the girl and actually licked her tears. It wasn’t long before the girl was much better and returned to her room.”
Fisher, Waite and Mazzari know first hand the immeasurable positive impact the dogs have had on helping troubled kids control their emotions and focus on their education,
And it all started with a puppy named for the NFL’s Cowboys.
“Dallas was a once-in-a-lifetime dog,” Fisher said, “a therapy dog in every sense of the word.”