A Midland, Michigan, middle school student told the school board last fall some of her classmates identify as cats and dogs. We parents arent sure what our schools are up to, she wrote in an email, according to the Times. The rumour was also spread by popular US podcaster Joe Rogan. School provides litterbox for students who identify as cats? Two curious stories relating to cats have been circulating online this week: In the first story, a substitute teacher claims she was fired because she refused to meow back to a student who identifies as a cat, while parents in a Michigan school district were infuriated by a rumor that the district was providing litter boxes to cat-identified students in school bathrooms. email: John@depetro.com. "The students are told they cant wear hats or Budweiser shirts in school, but they can wear cat ears, cat tails, masks, leashes. If youre on the right, youre might argue that some schools have gone so overboard with political correctness, its not a stretch to imagine privileges conferred on the allegedly cat-identified. The rumor about litter boxes gained enough traction that it was even mentioned during a March 2022 debate between state lawmakers in Nebraska. READ MORE:Anti-monarchy activists 'turn Buckingham Palace into polling station', But no, the school, the school resources and the other students and teachers should not have to be put through that because its a lie and we have to reject them.. ! In an Oct. 19, 2021, Facebook post, the Public Schools Branch of Prince Edward Island said that for several months it had fielded calls, been sent emails and been pointed to numerous social media posts that make broad sweeping assertions regarding students who identify as cats. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. WATCH: New Buddy Wildlife Documentary Premieres OnPITB! I dont go out wearing tail, gloves, ears, or fursuit heads on any normal day, she said in an email. Some say litter boxes are located in transgender bathrooms in schools. The grandmother said a petition to end the practice was created by students and has more than 1,000 signatures. Independent TV. Sorry, no feline accomadations in the school. I was also walking down the hallway three weeks ago when a boy wearing dog ears barked at me and my friend as we passed, she said, adding the boy left the school building on all fours. I dont want to lose readers by wading into a political landmine field, but most importantly I dont want anyone to feel unwelcome on this site. Some things in life, like cats, are too good to be muddied by Americas toxic ideological wars. 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In a clip from 'What is a Woman?', a documentary by right-wing commentator Matt Walsh, interviewee Sara Stockton, a family therapist based in New York, says schoolchildren are self-identifying as. These situations have been addressed consistently by administration and the dress code policy will continue to be implemented with fidelity. WATCH LIVE: Merrick Garland testifies before Senate Judiciary Committee. The false claim that children who identify as cats are using litter boxes in school bathrooms has spread across the internet since at least December, when a member of the public brought it up. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? Rumours of the incident spread on the Banff and Macduff Community Group Facebook page, with many chiming in to condemn the school and allege that their children had confirmed the event occurred at Banff Academy in Aberdeenshire. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. North Kingstown Councilwoman Mary Brimer sounded the alarm after hearing stories from parents of the school installing litter boxes at a school in a special section hidden from view. Not everyone supported the policy changes, with a group protesting them outside district offices in April. The superintendent tells WLKY the situation is being addressed, but according to a concerned grandparent, its an ongoing problem that has many students on edge. Editors' Code of Practice. 2023, Hearst Television Inc. on behalf of WLWT-TV. Ive actually made new friends at school because of it, Dayna said in an email. Also a PR expert, Goddard was highlighting concerns about the next census and the push to include gender categories. Many of these assertions claim that schools have or are in the process of having litter boxes placed in schools.. The email was also published in a regional Facebook group. Three school-age furries told NBC News they have at times dressed up at school, typically wearing just part of their full costume such as a mask or gloves that look like paws, but theyd never heard of any furry ever asking for a litter box. As he stated in his message, the board meeting took place on Dec. 20, 2021, and did not circulate widely until mid-January. The school districts say these claims are untrue. A teenage girl from Melbourne, Australia, identifies as a cat, according to multiple news stories. I have never once heard a furry say they want to use a litter box, Kymera said. Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that photos show a non-verbalstudentwhose cat identity is accommodated at public school. I was told by a teacher friend in Georgia that this is true in her state as well. One post calling for school districts to take action has been shared more than 31,000 times. Meade County Schools will not discuss individual student discipline due to privacy laws. This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's The photos show aNorweigan woman who was the subject of multiple media reports in 2016 when she claimed to be a cat trapped in a human's body. She covers misinformation, extremism and the internet. IE 11 is not supported. Oh, you are a human? Rumors began to surface that these students were permitted to use litter boxes in bathrooms to accommodate them, but the districts superintendent debunked such stories. Don't pay your auto insurance bill until you read this. Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who arent really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse. We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. Lastly, the superintendent of the school district has dismissed the rumors as misinformation. Send comments, questions and tips to her atnpate@statesmanjournal.comor 503-399-6745. McHugh deemed the current treatment of transgender children reckless and irresponsible. He also argued against allowing children to transition and equated the process to frontal lobotomies. He also stated that there would be negative long-term consequences of allowing children hormonal treatment and transitioning. I understand WHY my daughter home schooled our grandchildren.". Olivia, 16, from California, said shes been part of the furry community for six years. It was"unconscionable" that he was addressing the rumor, Sharrow said,but he felt it necessary to do so because of its renewed spread on social media. The inmates cannot continue to run the asylum. Sorry, not a known recognizable language. That has not stopped such rumors from circulating on social media, where they have been repeated like a game of telephone, often with descriptions of friends of friends who supposedly saw such things firsthand. It's also worth noting that while McKenna claimed on Pesta's podcast that she had received multiple emails about these furry protocols, the email she presents is the same email Pesta has been showcasing during his presentations. Beyond Republican politicians and officials, plenty of social media users have latched onto the rumor, most notably on Facebook and TikTok. For foreign students. Like Richard Littejohn at the Daily Mail, I'm not sure how many . do koalas have poisonous claws. It has even been parroted by former QAnon supporter and Republican politician Marjorie Taylor Greene. USA TODAY reached out to Hansen for comment. Change). District officials confirmed to the Statesman Journal that the claims are categorically false. 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It also directs schools to ensure that gender-neutral, single-occupant bathrooms are accessible to anyone. The postfrom Peggy Hubbard, who lost a recentIllinois Republican U.S. Senate primary, implies a connection to a U.S. school district, but the pictures don't show an American public school student or anything recent. This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Salem-Keizer: Claims of litter boxes in school restrooms are false. (LogOut/ Shop Our Favorite February Amazon Deals Before the Sales End, The 14 Best Mineral Sunscreens of 2023, According to Pros, 14 TikTok-Famous Cleaning Products That Actually Work, According to Our Experts, 14 Best Healthier Candy Alternatives of 2023, According to Taste Tests. As the number of people identifying as trans and nonbinary has increased in recent years, particularly among young people, so has the amount of anti-LGBTQ legislation from conservative politicians. 2022, https://isthmus.com/api/content/5442e938-b445-11ec-8e34-12274efc5439/. No Left Turn in Education, a Leading Anti-Critical Race Theory Group, Frequently Pushes Toxic Rhetoric in Media. Media Matters for America, https://www.mediamatters.org/education/no-left-turn-education-leading-anti-critical-race-theory-group-frequently-pushes-toxic. A couple of students identify as cats and demanded a litter box. Did a Michigan School District Install Litter Boxes in Bathrooms? Snopes.Com, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/litter-boxes-bathrooms/. Accountability is not a crime.. Website development by. In Colorado, GOP gubernatorial nominee Heidi Ganahl insisted in several recent interviews that students were dressing and identifying as cats, disrupting class, and the states schools were tolerating it. go to the park or an animal shelter and maybe youll be adopted! Im just embarrassed by what this has gotten to," she said. Im sure you can appreciate the difference between internet bullshittery and a legitimate, verified instance of a school district making allowances for furries or putting litter boxes in school bathrooms. 2022. "The Oregon Department of Education has had trans-inclusive policies in place for years now, and no harm has come to cisgender or transgender students as a result of those policies," Stenvick said. Meshawn Maddock,theco-chair of the state Republican Party, shared the unsubstantiated comment on Facebook. 2. / students identifying as cats. In Kentucky earlier this school year, officials were perplexed by a group of middle school students who dressed and acted like cats, apparently after accepting a social media challenge, according to a report by news station WLWT. "It could lead to a life of pornography addiction and deviant behavior. Cant even google interprete for you. In 2021 and 2022, various American conservative and far-right politicians and media personalities promoted the hoax in response to . The New York Times, USA TODAY, Politifact, Reuters and Snopes, among other publications, wrote articles confirming the claims were unfounded. At about the 33-minute mark in this YouTube video, local parent Lisa Hansen began discussing what in her opinion is a somewhat nefarious national agenda being pushed on students. Top image: A 20-year-old Norwegian woman who identifies as a cat. The claim that the Waunakee school district had implemented furry protocols appears to have originated with an email sent to Pesta. The trend toward acting like a cat or dog is real, even if the Midland school litter box is the hoax du jour. LGBTQ2SIA+ is the acronym used by Basic Rights Oregon and other advocacy groups to describe those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, two-spirit, intersexual, asexual and/or other varying genders and sexualities. A SCOTTISH secondary school has had to deny reports that some of its pupils were identifying as cats and defecating on the floor after school officials refused to provide a litterbox. Joseph Gunderson. You cansubscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief and director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Johns Hopkins University Hospital (and current distinguished professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences), echoed this sentiment when discussing the medical field and transgender people. For those of us who subscribe to neither ideology, the whole thing is another sad example of the polarization that is destroying the US, the same divisive talk amplified by platforms like Twitter and Facebook. [Doctors] dont have evidence that [the treatment] will be the right one, McHugh said in 2019. "So, now in schools, if a kid wants to identify as a furry, . "Sadly, the spread of hateful disinformation targeting queer and trans folks is nothing new, and these tactics make our schools and communities less safe," they said. Nebraska Lawmaker Apologizes for Debunked Litter Box Claim. NBC News, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/nebraska-lawmaker-apologizes-debunked-litter-box-claim-rcna21951. Its like that show and South Park are sort of grandfathered in and get away with things due to their success, but new shows wouldnt be allowed near some of these topics with a 10-foot pole. 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