LITTLETON, Colo. — The kids at Gaskill Elementary will quickly learn some of the biggest life lessons may not come from a teacher when they see Deputy John Gray and his K-9 partner Rex roaming the school halls.
"Yes, I feel very much like a celebrity manager," Gray said with a laugh. "For years we've had K-9s that found drugs or chased down suspects but now we have a dog that works without a school resource officer that can do something different."
Last year the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office introduced Rex the school resource therapy dog. Assigned to the Littleton School District, Rex helps dull some of the anxiety that comes with going to school in this day and age.
"I think we now think about school safety differently. We've always had an emphasis on making sure that when we're at the school we're aware of kind of what's going on," Gray explained.
"But for us as officers, it's a mindset too. So we're here we're having fun with the students we're trying to help them so that they can come to school and they can be relaxed and feel comfortable."
Gray has worked for the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office for almost 13 years and has been a school resource officer or an SRO for a little over seven. He said he decided to become an SRO because he saw the difference he could make and knew Rex would help him do that.
"Rex is kind of an equalizer no matter what you’re going through when you get to school, [the students] come in and interact with Rex and maybe they forget about whatever it was that had them stressed out before they got to school this morning," he explained. " One of the cool things about Rex is he can also find firearms so that’s a nice skill to have him in schools. Now we can also focus on school safety."
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