Yearbooks are valuable keepsakes for many people. They’re a way of looking back and remembering your favorite people from school.
But the pages of one school district’s yearbook have an unusual but adorable inclusion: Detective Gibbs, a support K9 who is a favorite of the students and staff.
Gibbs, a 2-year-old golden retriever, is a member of the Camp Hill Police Department, in Pennsylvania. He joined the department last July, partnering with Officer Joe Capers, the force’s school resource officer (SRO).
Detective Gibbs now serves as a community outreach officer who serves the students of the Camp Hill School District, helping to relieve them of stress and anxiety.
“Although our SRO was popular and very well received in the school district, the addition of Det. Gibbs has only enhanced the connection between students in Camp Hill and the Camp Hill PD,” Chief of Police Stephen Margeson told We Love Animals.
“This has helped us continue to build bridges between the police and the community and help demonstrate that the police are in fact the good guys and are there to help students any way we can.”
Gibbs is apparently quite good at his job, and has become a beloved fixture of the local schools — so much so that when it came time to put the yearbook together, students asked if the golden retriever could be included.
The Camp Hill Police Department agreed, and the adorable K9 got his photo taken along with the rest of the students and staff:
Gibbs is not a police work dog: he is not trained to sniff for drugs or do patrol work. His job is just to support the students of Camp Hill, and the department says the golden retriever has helped strengthen their connection with the community.
“He’s a beautiful Golden Retriever who is a fury officer friendly who helps to humanize police,” Margeson said.
Det. Gibbs was funded through the Honor 25 Foundation, which was started by Camp Hill resident Alaine Fagan, in honor of her late son who was a student athlete at Camp Hill High School.
Most yearbooks don’t include any animals among the portraits, however, some schools have made room for exemplary animals that became part of campus life.
Several service dogs have gotten a place in the yearbook pages after being a loyal companion to a student, like Ariel the Labradoodle who was a service dog to a 5-year-old with epilepsy, and Alpha, a service dog to a high school student with diabetes.
Some schools have other ways of honoring their beloved campus pets: some have even walked at graduation in recognition of helping their owners through school.
It’s great to see that Gibbs got his own photo in the yearbook — he deserves one for everything he does for the students in his community!
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