When Officer Rich Simons and Officer Heidi come to visit Branford High School (BHS), you can feel the good vibes. The team makes their rounds to provide wellness visits that help give kids “paws” from their school day and reap the benefits of Heidi’s remarkable training.

“I can’t say enough about the work she has been doing providing comfort, support, wellness, and creating smiles for the Branford High School students for the past seven months,” says Rich, who was joined by The Sound during a very special Valentine’s Day visit at BHS, hosted by BHS Mental Health Matters alliance, a student group.

In 2020, Rich, a North Branford resident and 30-Yale Police Department (YPD) veteran, transformed his role to partner with Heidi, the first Yale Public Safety Facility Dog.

“Heidi was the first Ivy League Facility dog at a university police department in the nation and first in New Haven county,” says Rich.

With the assistance and blessing of YPD, Rich began the remarkable road to training and working with Heidi through a very special program, Puppies Behind Bars (PBB), based in New York. The program works exclusively with Labrador Retrievers like Heidi.

“Puppies Behind Bars is a wonderful non-profit organization that trains service dogs for veterans that suffer from PTSD, and facility dogs that are paired with first responders at police departments around the country for community engagement policing,” Rich explains.

In 2019, Groton Police Department was the first in Connecticut to designate a facility service dog team through PBB.

“Shortly after Groton PD handler Heather McClelland was paired with Officer Chase, I started to go through the long process of getting a PBB dog. I was paired with Heidi in summer 2020,” says Rich.

Rich and Heidi began serving the Yale community in September 2020. They started visiting staff and students during the pandemic. Rich says he learned a lot from that start.

“When I got Heidi, it was in the middle of COVID, so not many people were around. I would go around to all of the Yale buildings that had staff that were working. And one of the things I learned is that we have a lot of students who are abroad and away from their families — they couldn’t fly home. So Heidi was there for them. We have a lot of people that have dogs that either can’t see their dogs or they just lost their dog. And Heidi brings that home. So you listen to people and what they say, and you assist them.”

At Yale, their goodwill visits help uphold the YPD stated mission “...to enhance the quality of life, safety, and security of the Yale community, striving every day to earn the trust, confidence, and respect of the community.”

Since 2020, they’ve branched out with the support and blessing of YPD.

“My chief believes we can help Yale and the community around us. I can’t think of anything more important,” Rich says. “So not only do we take care of the colleges, we provide care around the community — schools, churches, synagogues, convalescent homes, hospitals, cancer centers. Heidi sits on the bed with people while they’re getting cancer treatment.”

The team is on the job five days a week, with an ever-growing list of requests for more visits. Like many other K9 officers providing this special service, Heidi has her own Instagram account, ofcheidi_yalepd

“Because of Heidi’s popularity and the other dogs’, people reach out to us,” says Rich.

Heidi and Rich also visited North Branford High School (NBHS) last year to give a presentation. The visit was organized by Rich’s wife, NBHS School Librarian Michele Eligio.

Tough Training

Rich says the 14-day PBB training program is intense, meaningful, and, for him, life-changing.

“It’s the toughest training in my 32 years of policing. It’s emotionally draining, physically draining. She knew the commands. I had to learn them. These dogs are trained so well. Puppies Behind Bars breeds their own dogs, raises their own dogs, and has incarcerated inmates train their dogs. It gives back to the inmates, and it gives back to the officers as well.”

The training results were so profound for Rich that he’s since gone on to help Harvard PD, Princeton PD, Brown University PD, and Southern Connecticut State University PD bring in PBB-trained teams in a very short period of time.

In addition to Groton PD, Connecticut municipal police agencies placing PBB facility dog teams on the roster since 2019 include Middletown, Torrington, Naugatuck, Colchester, Hartford, and Waterford PD. Three more will soon join that list at Milford, Bristol, and Farmington police departments. In early February, Rich and Heidi assisted with the onboarding training portion of the PBB training session for the three new CT police agency handlers.

On the job, one of Rich’s most rewarding moments of the past year was when he and Heidi assisted a family with two young children belonging to one of two Bristol police officers killed by a shooter during a call response in October 2022. Rich and Heidi were also there to provide on-field support during the officers’ joint funeral service attended by thousands at Rentschler Field in Hartford on Oct. 18.

Helping Out at BHS

Together with BHS faculty adviser and Physical Education teacher Jennifer Stackpole, students with BHS Mental Health Matters set out initiatives to enhance student and staff wellness at the start of the school year. One of their ideas was to resume a therapy dog visitation program disrupted by the pandemic.

They named the program “Paws for a Cause” and invited K-9 service dog teams to visit. In October 2022, three teams, including Rich and Heidi, took part in a special program at BHS. Since then, Rich and Heidi have continued to stop by the school, as many as several times a month.

“Jen can call up and say, ‘We have a child that’s having a hard day,’ and we’ll give a one-on-one visit,” says Rich. “There are a lot of kids in crisis everywhere these days. This is another way to help. When they sit with the dog, they feel calmer.”

Heidi is trained to walk with her trainer off-leash and not to be distracted by crowds. Rich says her calm demeanor, coupled with body language including leaning into (or onto) a person engaging with her, is her way of soaking up the stress, anxiety, and other emotions a person may be experiencing.

Student alliance member Roslyn Iaderosa, a BHS junior, said Heidi’s Valentine’s Day visit was tied to a special survey the group developed as part of its work to provide compassionate response and support to the BHS community.

“We wanted to have feedback from the students and the staff on what they want us to do and what they think would be helpful. At the end of the survey, if they filled it out, we offered them a visit with Heidi,” says Rosyln.

Questions for teachers and students included rating their experiences with Heidi and its impact.

“The positive impact [response] is through the roof,” says Jennifer. “I’ve never had a tool, in 24 years of teaching, that’s touched so many people and made them smile.”

The group’s BHS survey also asked students about allergies and fears concerning service dog visits.

“With the classroom visits, I always check with the teachers ahead of time to make sure that there’s no one that may be fearful or is allergic,” says Jennifer. “We’ve popped into classes with Brody, from Southern, pre-exam, and had him in the library for study time.”

During mid-terms, Heidi and Tilde, UConn’s facility service dog, helped out with an interactive “Stretch Your Paws” yoga event at BHS.

Hooking Heidi’s Valentine’s Day visit into the survey was a success, Rosyln adds.

“There’s a good amount of diversity in our group, but I feel like having different perspectives from the schools is helpful. The survey brought it out.”

“Kids post pictures with Heidi in school and say, ‘This just made my day,’” adds BHS student alliance founder and student leader Leila Omeragic.

Leila recently successfully applied for the alliance to officially become a chapter of a national non-profit organization, Bring Change to Mind (BC2M).

“BC2M brings high schools together to bring awareness to mental health and reduce stigma surrounding mental health issues,” Leila explains.

On her BHS Valentine’s Day visit, Heidi didn’t disappoint the kids waiting to see her. Not only did she wear a very special ruffled collar, costumed for her by Yale Drama students, but, through Rich, Heidi passed out Valentine’s cards bearing her photo and a sweet message. Heidi received a gift, too — a BHS bandana made for her in school colors.

One of Heidi’s trademarks is to don special collars in the school colors of the institution the team’s visiting. Rich credits his wife with coming up with the idea.

It’s all part of the careful work Rich puts in to making sure this team is instantly recognized as one that’s there to provide a compassionate response. Heidi also wears her K-9 officer vest, while Rich wears a specially designed service uniform that’s intentionally dressed down. He travels with Heidi in a YPD unmarked vehicle that’s custom-made for Heidi, right down to her “wardrobe” laid out in the back.

“We spend a lot of time on Heidi’s little outfits — she even wears sunglasses sometimes,” says Rich. “It’s all about being approachable and providing that wellness, comfort, and support to students and the community. My chiefs believe that we’re able to help Yale and the community around us, and I can’t think of anything more pertinent than helping our children.”