Kevin Buchanan, the principal of Los Gatos High School, looked out at the bustling campus as his last year before retirement winds-down.
He noticed a group of students playing with a ball on the lawn near East Main Street.
“This is a good sign,” he remarked. “For a while they were too-cool-for-school and wouldn’t.”
And to his right—what he described as a “post-Covid institution”—the dogs from Canine Companions were helping to restore a sense of peace to students days before two weeks of AP testing was to begin.
“This is now a regular event that we can count on,” he said.
Joey Soria, a 16-year-old sophomore, said math and English had been pretty intense that morning. So, seeing the dogs was a nice change-of-pace.
“Just coming out here and being able to have the dogs here for comfort, it just makes the day significantly better,” Soria said.
Sophia Krish, 16, the sophomore class president, said educators have been putting a heavy emphasis on wellness issues.
“I think it’s becoming a really big part of school, and academics,” she said, noting they promote different events and programs that help students’ mental health, such as December’s Stress Less Week. “I’m really happy with how this turned out.”
Autumn Wadhwa, 16, sophomore vice class president, said it was great that Canine Companions was able to bring the dogs over again.
“People can relax and have fun,” she said. “We want to continue this.”
Jeanne Lang, a volunteer puppy raiser and therapy team volunteer with the organization, was happy to introduce 4-year-old yellow lab retriever Rieger to the teens.
Leadership advisor Katie Marden explained that this is the calm before the storm.
“We wanted to give them a little positive energy boost,” she said. “It’s a pretty intense couple of weeks.”
After all, she says, the students have been engrossed in studying and deserve a break.
Susan and her husband Bob Buxton covered the cost of the puppy-calming.
“I think it went good,” Bob said. “Whenever they want to do an event like this again, we will sponsor it. No questions asked.”
