{"id":3737,"date":"2025-05-06T17:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T21:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/?p=3737"},"modified":"2025-05-02T21:55:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T01:55:28","slug":"meet-huntington-east-middle-schools-therapy-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/2025\/05\/06\/meet-huntington-east-middle-schools-therapy-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Huntington East Middle School’s Therapy Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Owen James<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Photo Credit @BarkwithBear on Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 6, 2025<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WMUL-FM) \u2014 With mental health issues on the rise among middle school <\/span>student<\/span>, local schools are doing everything they can to help.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Photo Credit @BarkwithBear on Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This includes Huntington East Middle School’s paw-some therapy dog, Bear.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The school year can be <\/span>very stressful<\/span> for <\/span>students, but Bear, can salvage any <\/span><\/span>ruff<\/span><\/span> day. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jessica Kuhn, the academic coach at East, has had the distinct privilege of being Bear\u2019s handler since he arrived in December.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“We got him through a grant from Governor Justice’s office called Friends with Paws<\/span>,<\/span> where they placed therapy dogs in schools throughout West Virginia,<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span> she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Photo Credit @BarkwithBear on Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The one-year-old golden retriever<\/span> was the 45<\/span><\/span>th<\/span><\/span> therapy dog to be placed in a West Virginia school as part of the program, and his presence has become a central part of the school day to<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0many of the students at Huntington East.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“Every day when the students get here, Bear is in the hallway greeting them; he stands in the hallway so that everybody gets an opportunity to say hello,” Kuhn said. “Same thing at the end of the day, usually <\/span>he’s<\/span> out in the hallway so that the kids can sa<\/span>y bye to him as well.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Photo Credit @BarkwithBear on Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Photo Credit @BarkwithBear on Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“He’s loved by everyone; we’ve had students say he is one of the main reasons they come to school is just to see him,” she continued.<\/p>\n

Draven, an eighth grader at Huntington East, is a library assistant and gets to spend more time with Bear than any other student. He says that Bear has had a <\/span><\/span>paw-<\/span>sitive<\/span><\/span> impact on the mental health of many of his peers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“They love him. They really like him. <\/span>They’re<\/span> always wanting to see him. They always say his name whenever <\/span>they<\/span> cross<\/span> paths with <\/span>him,<\/span>” he said.\u00a0<\/span>“I think he helps a lot with depression, <\/span>because<\/span> I’ve known a lot of kids who have depression and they’re way brighter now. Coming to school to see Bear has really helped them a lot I think.”<\/span><\/p>\n

You can <\/span>keep up <\/span>with Bear<\/span> on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok <\/span>@<\/span>BarkwithBear<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Owen James May 6, 2025 HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WMUL-FM) \u2014 With mental health issues on the rise among middle school student, local schools are doing everything they can to help. This includes Huntington East Middle School’s paw-some therapy dog, Bear.\u00a0 The school year can be very stressful for students, but Bear, can salvage any ruff day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1052,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,4],"tags":[1065,115,1067,590,1064,935,69,1054,783,1061,1063,1059,1060,1062,790,1066,1068,51,96],"class_list":["post-3737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-wmul-news","tag-bark-with-bear","tag-college-radio","tag-friends-with-paws","tag-huntington","tag-huntington-east-middle-school","tag-huntington-news","tag-huntington-wv","tag-huntington-wv-news","tag-mental-health","tag-owen-james","tag-owen-james-nc88","tag-owen-james-news","tag-owen-james-newscenter-88","tag-owen-james-wmul","tag-therapy","tag-therapy-dog-bear","tag-therapy-dogs","tag-wmul","tag-wv"],"acf":[],"fimg_url":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1052"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3737"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3822,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3737\/revisions\/3822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}