Illustration by Tabitha Walters
After a contentious lawsuit, Gracie the Bernedoodle is back with the teacher she lived with during her stint as a therapy dog at Wines Elementary School.
According to the complaint filed in May by kindergarten teacher Lexi Fata, Wines principal David DeYoung surveyed the staff in 2022 about starting a therapy dog program. Fata expressed interest in caring for the dog, and DeYoung arranged for the donation of the Bernedoodle.
Fata named the dog Gracie, and the school’s parent-teacher organization gave $15,000 to send her to Clinton Township resident Greg Lambert for training. According to the complaint, Lambert then signed a transfer of ownership to Fata, and Gracie came to live with her and her husband.
But at school, the dog was nervous around adults and larger children; she barked at strangers and flinched at sudden noises. She mostly stayed in Fata’s classroom, and when the school was busy, she retreated to the school office.
According to the complaint, when Fata raised the question of who owned Gracie, DeYoung responded, “Gracie is ‘your’ dog and not owned by the school or district”—but also that she was part of the school community and Fata would need to transfer Gracie’s ownership if she ever left Wines.
In March, Fata told the principal that she would be leaving at the end of the school year to follow her partner to New Jersey. That set off an extended argument about Gracie’s ownership.
At the end of April, Fata sent Gracie to the office as usual, but the dog didn’t return. Instead, Fata was summoned to meet with DeYoung and two district executives. They told her that DeYoung had taken Gracie and would not be bringing her back.
Fata sued the schools and Lambert—who was once again caring for Gracie—seeking the dog’s return. The district responded that Gracie was school property and Fata just her “primary handler.”
Fata hired Ann Arbor attorney Charlotte Crosson and started a GoFundMe that quickly raised more than $16,000 to help with her legal fees. Detroit law firm Clark Hill represented the district.
But Fata also went public. She wrote an open letter presenting her case to Wines parents. At a June school board meeting, she criticized the district for spending money on lawyers rather than settling out of court.
In August, that’s what happened: a settlement was reached that returned Gracie to Fata. The terms of the agreement are confidential, and neither side will discuss whether it included anything beyond Gracie’s return.
Crosson credits Fata’s supporters for that. “Public opinion became the perfect storm for us,” the attorney says. “People felt very strongly about our case, and meeting after meeting of the school board, they wrote letters and appeared to speak in support of Lexi and Gracie.”
