“I would like to take this opportunity to assure you that we do not and will not plan to provide any litter boxes at the school.”
So wrote the assistant principal of a secondary school in South Wales in a letter home to the students’ parents. The reason was that incorrect information began to spread online that students at the school who identify as cats would be given access to litter boxes as toilets.
– These are nonsense rumors that we have ignored for six months, but unfortunately they have persisted because some parents feel the need to spread falsehoods, says principal Emma Jordan to The Daily Mail.
Rumors have spread all the way to North America about how British schools provide litter boxes in the toilets for those who “identify as cats” or so-called “furries”.
“Although we are an inclusive and welcoming school, we do not take special measures for any students who may identify as an animal of any kind,” continued assistant principal Claire Hughes in her letter.
A case for the government
In June, Katharine Birbalsingh, named “Britain’s Toughest Headteacher”, warned that more and more children were identifying as cats and wearing tails and ears in classrooms.
– They don’t dress up, they identify themselves as cats, you see. Children are not allowed to wear gym shoes at school but it is perfectly fine for them to have ears and tails because that is their identity. The adult authority is lost, she said at a conference.
At Rye College in East Sussex, the government had to investigate an incident where a student did not want to identify a schoolmate as a fur animal.
A 13-year-old girl was then called “despicable” by her teacher because she refused to identify her classmate as a cat.
However, the school has denied that they allow students to identify themselves as animals. They are said to have said that no children enrolled at the school “identify as cats or any other animal”.
The UK Schools Authority later carried out an inspection of Rye College following an intervention by Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch.
The minister called on the authority to take action, claiming the teacher, who told two 13-year-old girls there are “many genders”, breached the legal requirement for political impartiality in classrooms.