Ross Goes to School

Today, I received a page at 11:45am that one of Ross' biggest fans was in a physical restraint. Normally, when I receive such a page, it is one of my job duties to check on the child to make sure that staff are performing the restraint correctly, that the child is not hurt, and that the restraint was necessary to ensure safety to the child and/or others. But when I heard who it was today, I had another plan (in addition to the regular plan). I woke Ross from his nap (snoring and dreaming), and we headed down to the school building where the child was. I walked directly to the time out room, where I heard the child screaming, and saw staff restraining him (correctly and safely). I calmly told him that he had a visitor, but he needed to be safe. Staff turned so that the boy could see Ross sitting in the doorway. I heard a faint "Ross" and the boy began to cry a little. He quickly calmed, and staff released him from the restraint. He sat down as staff had asked him to, and I walked Ross over to him. Ross immediately crawled in his lap and began to lick the tears off his face. The boy cooed about how much he loves Ross, while I checked in with the staff about the incident. Within seconds, the boy was smiling and laughing as Ross continued to lick his face and hands. His arms were wrapped tightly around Ross.

After a few minutes, the boy was calm enough to walk back to the unit with staff for lunch. As I prepared to leave as well, I saw another one of Ross' fans sitting in the hallway. His head was down, and he looked sad. He did not acknowledge either of the two staff in the hallway with him. I asked him if he wanted to say "hi" to Ross before we left the school building, and he quietly said, "Yes." I walked Ross over to him, and Ross immediately laid down in front of him. He quietly pet Ross and answered some of my questions, but continued to refuse to acknowledge the other staff. As we hung out in the hallway, the teachers started to come out of their classrooms and admire Ross and ask questions about his Guide Dog training. At one point, Ross sat up, put his paw on the child's lap, and gave him a big kiss on the face. The boy laughed, temporarily forgetting that he was upset.