<p>One of the issues I see here is one of flexibility. The student who is allergic, is allergic. There’s no way around that. I think we can all agree that the blind student really needs that service dog, and it’s easy to understand how important the dog is to the blind student. </p>
<p>But the student who is calmed by a rabbit…would they also be calmed by listening to certain music? Getting a massage? Meditation? Hypnosis? A long hot shower? Talking to their therapist? It’s just difficult to understand how someone can have an illness that can only be satisfied by a particular animal living with them and no other reasonable alternatives exist. Add to that a certain number of people who will try to use the word “disability” simply to get things they want, or unscrupulous doctors who will sign off on things like this, and there’s just a lot of doubt that this animal is so necessary that it requires a waiver of the usual rules and requires other students to put their own health at risk and take otherwise unnecessary medical treatments. If the animal were a fish and therefore not impinging on other residents’ health and quality of life, I’d be entirely supportive of getting a waiver. And people do find fish calming.</p>