Comfort dogs welcome students back to school

By Stephanie Muñiz

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    ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KOAT) — Tuesday was the first day back for students h at Washington Middle School after Friday’s fatal shooting. When they came back, Albuquerque Police Department made sure they had a warm welcome.

The APD’s horse-mounted unit welcomed students back.

Rebecca Atkins, Albuquerque Police Department said, “A big part of what they do is community engagement and walking with the horses, and talking to the community. And this is a very hard day for the students and faculty here.”

Animals are a comfort for a lot of people, and APD wanted to make sure their furry friends could help make students smile during lunch hour.

“Ours is named Graham and their dog is named Woodstock and they are actually related. They’re just really sweet dogs, and the kids have really been enjoying having them here. It’s just been a nice comfort for them,” Atkins said.

Both Graham and Woodstock are trained to help victims of violence to provide comfort and support.

“These kids experienced a tragedy that not a lot of kids have to go through… You can tell they are going through some things but they are also really happy to have the dogs here and to have the horses here, to have the dogs here. And just really again distract them and deal with internally what happened the other day,” Atkins said.

APD said they wanted to make sure the mounted horse unit and the comfort dogs were able to stay with students throughout the lunch hour on Tuesday.

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