Kare11
PAWS celebrates 10 years connecting service animals with students
Students on campus have turned to animals to “Pet Away Worry and Stress” for a decade, but it’s the community that has helped PAWS stick around.
ST PAUL, Minn. — It’s the time of year when seasonal depression can coincide with the stress of studies on college campuses, but for the past decade, the University of Minnesota’s Boynton Health Service has deployed a special team of therapy animals to help students cope.
“I grew up with a dog, so for me this is like my weekly dose of joy,” said Caroline Brown, who takes time out of her schedule every week to take part in the PAWS program inside the student center on the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus. “I work at the post office right there, so every Tuesday I’m working, so I just pop over for 10 minutes or so to say hi to all the dogs.”
Brown was drawn to PAWS, which stands for Pet Away Worry and Stress, ever since she first laid eyes on a black lab named Ember.
“The dog I grew up with died a few years ago, but she was a black lab, too, so, I really like petting Ember,” she said.
Ember’s handler, Maureen Kleckner, says she’s proud to be part of the effort, which brings therapy animals to students at different U of M campus locations four times a week when school is in session.
“When Ember sees someone that needs her, she just goes,” Kleckner said. “She knows who needs her, she goes, she snuggles, she lays down. It’s just amazing to see.”
It’s also amazing to see how much PAWS has grown.
Alison Brown and her Great Dane named Phoenix, just helped PAWS celebrate it’s 10-year anniversary.
“He scored one of the t-shirts,” Alison Brown said, pointing to Phoenix, who was wearing a t-shirt as he took up half of a couch inside the student center. “He’s a big guy, 155 pounds, and he’s fitting into a large, but he really should have an extra large.”
Behind every laugh and smile the animals bring, there is usually a student with a story.
“It means so much just to be able to come and see some animals,” said Abi Martin, who started coming to PAWS events as a freshman and now volunteers for the organization. “If I’m having a bad day, or a bad week, it just really lifts my spirits.”
“There’s kids that are just missing their animals,” Alison Brown said. “There’s people that are having a really tough time, there’s people who aren’t really fitting in and they’ve found a new community, a new family here.”
“I started coming with my friends,” said Bridgette Bowman, “but then made more friends, so that’s really nice.”
Though many of those friends are peers, Bowman also formed an unexpected bond with a therapy chicken named Henley.
“I never thought of a chicken being a therapy animal,” she said. “And then when I found out she liked to cuddle, I was like, ‘Hey, we have two things in common.’ It’s very comforting in an odd way, and it’s just kind of a unique experience that I get to look forward to every week.”
“All human beings need that, you know, we’re hard-wired for connection,” said Tanya Bailey, director of the PAWS program. “We’re not hard-wired to be alone.”
Bailey says that is the simple premise that caused her to start the PAWS program 10 years ago this month, but in the decade since she says she’s truly witnessed how profound that connection can be.
“I have had students tell me, on a pretty significant level, that this program helped them stay on the planet,” she said. “So often times that animal becomes that bridge, that bridge between ‘I’m feeling really vulnerable and I don’t know if I can tell you as the human being, but I can maybe pet this animal and while I’m doing that, it allows me to open up a little bit more.'”
And the benefits go both ways.
“We get just as much out of this as the students do,” Kleckner said. “If you look around, all of these kids are right here, they’re petting the dogs, they’re talking to one another, they’re talking to us, and – especially right now – we need to build community.”
For information on the PAWS program and it’s upcoming sessions on campus, click here.
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The former state trooper is charged with the killing of 18-year-old Olivia Flores.
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Editor’s Note: The above video first aired on 8/26/2024.
The former Minnesota State Patrol trooper charged with the killing of an 18-year-old girl is asking for his case to be dismissed and a change of venue for it to be moved out of Olmstead County.
The former trooper, Shane Roper, and his attorney argue that the “extensive and regional media coverage” jury pools are likely tainted and a fair trial could not be conducted in Olmstead County.
According to a criminal complaint, Roper was driving 83 miles an hour, full throttle with his lights and siren off when he sped through the busy Rochester intersection by the mall and slammed into 18-year-old Olivia Flores.
Records show he’d been suspended twice and reprimanded twice more for similar behavior.
The order from Roper’s attorney also asks the court to preclude the introduction of any evidence related to prior speeding or traffic incidents involving Roper.
Roper and his attorney are asking for charges 1-8 to be dismissed for “lack of probable cause.”
Kare11
‘This doesn’t change anything’ Biden apology for Native American boarding schools draws mixed reaction
For the very first time, a sitting President has apologized for boarding schools that tore Native Americans apart and led to countless cases of abuse and death.
MINNEAPOLIS — During his first presidential visit to Indian Country on Friday, Joe Biden delivered a historic and emphatic apology, acknowledging 150 years of abuse, trauma and death inflicted by Native American boarding schools.
“I formally apologize, as President of the United States of America, for what we did,” Biden said. “It’s one of the most horrific chapters in American history,” said President Biden.
Christine Diindiisi McCleave, former CEO of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, spent years documenting the stories of boarding school survivors and advocating for justice and accountability by the US leaders.
“My family has two generations of boarding school history that I know of,” McCleave said, during an interview for the KARE 11 Series “Lost History,” which detailed the impact of boarding schools in Minnesota.
During his speech on Friday, President Biden acknowledged the work of the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and efforts to better understand the horrors and generational trauma the schools inflicted.
“Generations of Native children stolen, taken away to places they didn’t know,” Biden said. “Children abused emotionally, physically and sexually abused, forced into hard labor, some put up for adoption without the consent of their birth parents. Some left for dead in unmarked graves.”
Christine Diindiisi McCleave: “I struggle with what I’m supposed to say and what I really feel.”
Kent Erdahl: “Why do you say that?”
McCleave: “Well, because today is historic and while I am grateful to see this progress being made. I am also realizing just how short it falls… from real reparations, from real healing.”
She knows she’s not the only one who feels that way. The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition surveyed survivors in 2016.
“The thing they wanted the least was an apology because, while it is an acknowledgement, it doesn’t change anything,” McCleave said. “The majority of them said they wanted a truth commission. Trying to find out exactly how many boarding schools existed, how many children went to those boarding schools and how many children died at those schools.”
She says an investigation led by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, whose grandparents and mother were among those sent to these schools did help better understand that impact, but it only scratched the surface.
“They were only able to investigate the Federal Government’s records,” McCleave said. “Half of these schools were run by churches, of various denominations, and so a truth commission would be able to look into those records as well.”
“Nearly one thousand documented Native child deaths, though the real number is likely to be much, much higher,” Biden said on Friday.
Bills in both the House and the Senate could make that commission a reality, but until that happens, Christine says she can’t ignore the politics of an apology that took place in a swing state, just days before an election.
McCleave: “This apology doesn’t change anything for my mother, who was abused as a child. Of for my grandfather who was a abused at a Catholic Indian Boarding School.”
Erdahl: “Do you hope that this isn’t just an election ploy?”
McCleave: “I hope that this apology actually helps that bill get passed. Native American people are no stranger to being political pawns, so you know what, if this is an election ploy so be it, I hope something good comes out of it.”
Researchers spoke about increased THC potency and the impact on youth brain development.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Whether purchased from dealer or dispensary, weed has become more potent over the years. In 2022, the federal government reported THC levels more than tripled since 1995.
Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Graduate School addressed this Friday at its first cannabis summit. Attendees primarily included the nonprofit’s graduate students as well as undergraduate students from nearby universities.
Speakers included researchers from the University of Minnesota, Hamline University, Mitchell Hamline School of Law and others.
Ken C. Winters, is a senior scientist at the Oregon Research Institute’s Minnesota location and a consultant for the University of Iowa’s Native Center for Behavioral Health.
He covered the interplay between youth, cannabis and health.
“It’s not your grandparents’ marijuana these days,” Winters said to the students.
The Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Graduate school offers a 2-year program, in which students like John Ryan and William Barksdale are earning counseling degrees in substance use and mental health.
“The takeaway would be that you’ve seen potency levels increase quite a bit, and the research is trying to keep pace with that,” Barksdale said.
“As we saw today, marijuana use has gone up in the last couple years such that it’s eclipsed alcohol use in terms of daily users in the United States,” Ryan added. “It’s is much more concerning now because there is such a higher degree of potency that’s available on a wider basis.”
Ryan says it’s especially concerning for youth.
“The subject of the last presentation, which I found quite engaging, was the specific effects on adolescents,” he said. “So, teenagers and people within that young adult range, the 18 to 25-year-olds because that’s generally the period the most brain development takes place. So that’s the area of concern … but it’s still something that I think is being studied and being observed in the first stages of that.”
Kevin Doyle provided opening remarks. He has more than 35 years of experience as a licensed professional counselor. Today, he’s president and CEO of the grad school.
“Potency, dosage, frequency of use, availability, legal cutoffs in terms of age, all those things need to be talked about,” Doyle said. “Adolescent brain development. We know more and more about that every year. Sometimes it seems like every day we learn more about that.”
“How do we as a treatment community need to be prepared to respond?”
The summit comes as Minnesota works to set rules for the cannabis industry after legalizing the drug for recreational use last year. A public comment period is expected later this fall.
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