BILLINGS — The Billings School District has introduced three comfort dogs to middle schools to assist with improving students’ mental health.
Rob Vickery is the school resource officer for Medicine Crow and Castle Rock middle schools and brings his eight-month-old Newfoundland dog, Indy, to work nearly each day. He first proposed the idea to the district and police department several months ago when he saw there was a need for the animals.
“One of the things we’ve learned is that kids in Montana, the youth in Montana, there’s a mental health crisis, and trying to find ways to help them in the schools, we came up with the idea of having a service dog or what we call a comfort dog to help the kids when they’re having a bad day or struggling,” said Vickery…