Parkland students dedicate yearbook page to school therapy dogs

Pups came to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after 2018 massacre

After last year’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, a group of therapy dogs was brought in to help the surviving students cope.

So it only felt right to honor those pups with their own yearbook page. Check out the photos below, shared by Aerie Yearbook on Twitter. One of the dogs is even wearing a bow tie for the special occasion. So dapper.

Look at Chief, the yellow Lab shown above. Would you sign his yearbook?

The dogs are wonderful, of course, but let's not get away from the reason why they're a permanent fixture at the school.

The shooting rampage, which took place Feb. 14, 2018, claimed the lives of 17 students and staff members. The massacre inflamed the nation’s debate over guns and turned some Parkland students into political activists.

"After the shooting, we wanted that yearbook to be perfect -- and had to cover as much as possible,” editor-in-chief Caitlynn Tibbetts, 17, told BuzzFeed News. “This year, we wanted to give proper representation of our school and who we are now, without giving so much focus to what happened to us in the past. The therapy dogs are the one thing from last year that is permanent and positive."

BuzzFeed said the dogs go to class, give “handshakes” in the halls, and wag their tails in the courtyard.

They’ve been there in the wake of the tragedy, on the anniversary of the shooting, and as the community had to grapple with the suicides of two Parkland teens this spring, according to the report. A few of the dogs even joined students at prom.

Picture day was held last October, according to the Twitter account.


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