Biscuit goes to school

ANNAPOLIS – While most students are enjoying a break from school, Biscuit is waiting for the halls of St. Mary’s School to fill again. The emotional support dog has become such a fixture on campus that students, teachers and administrators say summer feels a little different without her.

“It’s been hard this summer not seeing her every day,” said Melissa Nisbett, the high school principal. “She’s so soothing. I’ll be having a rough day and she’ll come in and I’ll be like ‘Ah, Biscuit’s here.’ ”

Since arriving at St. Mary’s three years ago, Biscuit has become far more than some sort of school mascot. The emotional support dog, which school leaders believe to be the first permanent animal of her kind at a school in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, is woven into daily life at the pre-K-to-12 campus, helping ease stress, boost morale and provide comfort to students, teachers and parents alike.

Megan Back, president and former principal at the elementary school, piloted the program three years ago with the archdiocese’s permission.

“Now (Biscuit) is exposed to the students in pre-K through 12 at St. Mary’s so she spends a lot of time with all different ages of students and some of her favorite people on the campus are priests,” Back said.

Every morning, Biscuit stands in the doorway at the elementary school greeting faculty and students as they arrive and occasionally welcomes high school students as well. She sometimes guest stars on the morning announcements on the school’s YouTube channel and, at 8 a.m., has a standing appointment with the pastor.

“She goes running up to the rectory window, and he opens the window and gives her treats, which are approximately two to 20 treats at that time,” Back said.

The treats give her energy to run around checking for squirrels and other creatures around Carroll Gardens, the historic property on campus.

As she makes her rounds throughout the day, Biscuit is greeted warmly by students and staff alike. Back said she is famously accepting of just about any snack.

She even cleans up after lunch and recess, picking up stray French fries or snacks, said Meghann Cannelli, the elementary school principal. School staff even joke that Biscuit’s favorite food is chicken sandwiches after she stole the sandwiches from the administration one day.

She then sits in Back’s office, practically requiring anyone who comes in for a meeting to pet her.

Students can also use character cash, an incentive currency system at St. Mary’s in which they earn cash for good behavior. Many choose to walk Biscuit, visit her or have her come to their classroom. Most read her a series of books about a dog named Biscuit, connecting her to the character after whom she was named.

School administrators have noticed Biscuit adopts a different attitude depending on whom she interacts with.

“With the elementary school students, Biscuit sits very still and doesn’t react,” Cannelli said. “She just lets them pet her, but with the high school students and adults, she is actively looking for pets.”

The only rule, especially around younger students, is to approach her gently and not repeat her name too many times.

“If there’s 30 kids running up to her saying her name, it kind of saturates the command, so we ask them to just say her name one time,” Back said. “It doesn’t always work, but we do ask them to do that.”

Cannelli said Biscuit is even a calming presence during parent meetings.

“She actually can sense the person who’s under the most stress in the room,” said Back, her primary handler. “So, for instance, if we have a difficult parent conversation or we have a student who’s in distress about a social situation, she’ll kind of assess them and always ends up sort of at the foot of the person under the most sort of emotional pressure at the time.”

All of a sudden, whether it’s faculty, students or parents, they are talking and petting her without even realizing it, Back said.

“We have teachers who come in to see her every single day, during the arrival they specifically seek her out,” Back said. “Then when they conclude their dismissal duties, they’ll come straight to my office and just sit on the floor with her and pet her. So it has been a tremendous morale and sort of climate booster for our whole campus to have her.”

Only a few students at the school have allergies or are nervous around dogs, according to administrators, who send out an opt-out form every year. Those students receive a small Biscuit stuffed animal that allows them to still connect with her.

Biscuit wasn’t St. Mary’s first effort to use animals to help create a calm and welcoming school environment.

Before Biscuit, St. Mary’s School had a fish tank with three colorful bettas and one large snail. School administrators found that many students considered the fish calming. Some students, according to Cannelli, even prefer the fish tank to Biscuit because it can be more intriguing.

John Buzzelli, the assistant principal at the elementary school, has found the fish particularly helpful with disciplinary actions.

“Some kids practice apologizing to the fish,” Buzzelli said.

What started with a fish tank at St. Mary’s School eventually grew into a program centered on a permanent emotional support dog who brings comfort and joy to faculty, staff and students. 

“I think we thought it was going to be wonderful, and we thought it was going to be fun,” Back said, “but I think it’s exponentially more wonderful than we could have even imagined.”

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