The school protection organization is being criticized for issuing guidelines to parents and teachers on how to support pupils who are ‘furry’ and like to dress up and act like animals
- It’s unclear how many UK students currently identify as ‘furries’
- The Safer Schools organization has issued guidelines on how to respond to furries
A school protection organization has issued guidelines for parents and teachers on how to support students who like to dress up and act like animals, known as ‘furries’.
It’s unclear how many – if any – British pupils identify as furries, but the Safer Schools organization published a comprehensive piece of guidance this month for parents and teachers on how to respond if they encounter someone who does.
The series of observations on furries contains reassurances that it is not uncommon for students to want this: ‘It is normal for young people to express themselves by dressing up’.
The post on the organization’s website explains how members of the furry “community” like to take on the persona of an animal — a “fursona” — and interact with other like-minded “fursonas” through chat and role-playing games.
It further outlines how furries take on the personality and physical characteristics of their chosen animal and some members make or purchase vibrant costumes of their characters, known as “fursuits.” Conventions are held all over the world where these like-minded people can meet in their altered animal egos, it says.
A school protection organization has issued guidelines for parents and teachers on how to support students who like to dress up and act like animals, known as ‘furries’.
The Safer Schools organization has published an extensive piece of guidance on how to respond if they come across students who identify as ‘furries’
The series of observations about furries includes reassurances that it is in no way unusual for pupils to want this: ‘It is normal for young people to express themselves by dressing up’
The post makes it clear that “furries are not sexual in nature” — and advises parents or teachers who encounter one to “start a conversation about what it means to be a furry and the benefits of the furry community.”
Litter boxes in schools?
The school litter box hoax is a rumor that claims that certain schools in North America place litter boxes in bathrooms for students who “identify as cats” or “furries.”
A Michigan school district last year denied providing litter boxes to students who identified as “furries” after a woman made the claim at a school board meeting.
The woman, Lisa Hansen, said: ‘So yesterday I learned that at least one of our schools – in one of the unisex bathrooms – has a litter box for the kids who identify as cats, and it really bothers me. And I’m going to do some more research on that.’
Superintendent Michael E. Sharrow said it was “unconscionable” for him to address the matter in an email to parents that was also posted on Facebook.
“Let me be clear in this announcement. There is no truth whatsoever in this false statement/accusation! There have never been litter boxes in MPS schools,” Sharrow said.
The post acknowledges that a number of reports suggesting “pupils across multiple UK schools who identify as cats and engage in disruptive behaviors such as crawling on all fours and demanding litter boxes be placed in toilets” have turned out to be hoaxes.
But it continues: ‘The furry community itself is a complex community, made up of many different identities and definitions of what it means to be a ‘furry’.
It illustrates the post with photos of a number of people dressed as animals, including cats, dogs, bears and badgers. BUT NO DONKEY ANIMALS
Safer Schools describes itself as ‘a multi-award-winning protective ecosystem, created to educate, empower and protect your entire school community in a digital world’. It is financially backed by insurance giant Zurich Municipal,
But last night the idea of ”normalizing” this “demented” pastime by issuing guidelines for supporting “furries” was condemned as “madness” by the school’s watchdog, The Campaign for Real Education.
Chairman Chris McGovern told MailOnline: ‘This sounds like complete madness.
‘Safer Schools legitimizes and normalizes demented, delusional and disturbed behavior through guidance.
“They’re giving the green light to anarchy in schools.
“Children are likely to use the guidance as a green light for misbehaving and laughing.”
The uproar follows the outcry in the Isle of Man last month when it emerged that during controversial teaching classes, a transvestite guest told pupils aged 12 and up that there were 73 genders – and students who questioned this claim were punished with detention.
Safer Schools have been contacted for comment.
People who are furries “create for themselves an anthropomorphic animal character (fursona) with which they identify,” say scientists who study them. (File image)
