Anthony Cruz depends on his service animal for a life saving-reason: His dog, named Dog, is a service animal who can closely monitor his 58 year-old owner’s blood sugar level, which can crash without notice due to Cruz’s medical condition.

When North Idaho College officials told Cruz he could not bring Dog to classes, Cruz took action.

“I’m not out for money, and I want to make that clear,” Cruz said. “It’s like you telling me to leave my wheelchair at home.”

After registering for classes, Cruz was referred from the Center for New Directions to the Center for Educational Access of the college when he requested several classroom accommodations, including the presence of his service animal and the use of a specialized chair.

Cruz was told his requests would be denied unless he produced an updated physician’s note. Cruz alleges that even after providing one, his request was denied. According to the American Disabilities Act, such medical documentation is not required, but here it was deemed not sufficient by the school, which is improper under law.

Cruz said college officials called him later and told him that both his chair and service dog accommodations had been later approved, but by then his class sessions had already begun and he had missed the first classes, so he declined to attend the college after all.

“I don’t think other people should have to go through what I did, that’s not reasonable accommodation,” Cruz said. “There’s different types of disabilities, there’s the physical you can see and there’s some that you can’t. What I have is something that you can’t see. I wish I could hang my heart out and show the mechanical heart valve that’s in there, but I guess that’s not possible…. A lot of people don’t understand that it’s not that easy to get a dog and slap on a vest and say it’s a service dog, because there is criteria you have to meet,” Cruz said. “First of all, you have to be disabled, and that’s through the definition of social security’s disability. There’s no such thing as partially, or 50 percent disabled. Either you are or you’re not.”

Cruz is in the process of evaluating whether to file a lawsuit, motivated by the desire to pave the way for other disabled persons so that they can hopefully avoid this type of situation.