The St. Ignace News: Gator the Safety Dog Is on Duty at Rudyard School

Gator, a 14-month old Labrador retriever, is ready to help out at the Rudyard Area Schools in both firearm detection and emotional support roles.

By: ERICH T. DOERR | The St. Ignace News| April 3, 2024

ST. IGNACE — When Rudyard Area Schools students returned from spring break Tuesday, April 2, they found that their district used the week off to bring in a new resource to increase safety and it is cuter than they expected. Gator, the school’s new safe- ty dog, and his handler Carlos Molina, a 2016 Rudyard graduate, are ready for duty filling both detection and emotional support roles.

Gator is a 14-month-old yellow Labrador retriever that now lives with Molina. They trained together for about a month before making their debut with the district. The students got to meet him Tuesday at a pair of assemblies, one for younger children and one for older ones, that also laid down the rules for the dog. Gator has been trained to sniff out both firearms and explosives, and he’ll also serving as an emotional support animal to help students and staff.

It’s an extra layer of security that our schools, especially in rural areas, regularly need,” Rudyard Superintendent Tom McKee said. “There’s no downsides that we are seeing.”

The school was able to cover the costs of Gator and his handler through a State of Michigan grant for security and mental health needs. The pair are contracted to work in the school from now until the end of the year, at which point data collected on their performance will be analyzed to see if the program should continue. Options for more funding are also being considered. Results of the study will be given to the school board for a final decision.

Gator and Molina were trained for their new roles by Zebra K9, a Waterford-based dog training team that censed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Rudyard is the second school district in the Upper Peninsula, and seventh in Michigan, to introduce one of the company’s safety dogs. St. Ignace Area Schools debuted their safety dog Nova and her handler Jessica Myjak back in January. Nova and Gator were trained together before coming to the U.P.

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