TX: Furry Panic Is Back

It has been three years and change since the Great Furry Panic first swept school policy circles. 

Patient Zero for this fake story seems to be Michigan's Midland Public Schools board meeting in December of 2021, at which a mother spoke claiming she was informed that litter boxes had been added in bathrooms for students who "identify as cats", calling it a "nationwide" issue and pointing to an "agenda that is being pushed" (a "nefarious" one). The co-chair of the Michigan GOP promoted the stories ("Parent heroes will TAKE BACK our schools), and before you could say crazy-pants disinformation campaign, the story was being covered by Buzzfeed, USA Today, and the New York Times.

There's also a theory that the post-Columbine practice of keeping an emergency bucket in the classroom  in case students are trapped there by another gunman. Some schools include kitty litter in their emergency bucket.

At any rate, the story spread through the far right dope-o-sphere. Folks started noting the spread of furry panic back at the beginning of 2022. There are schools, the story goes, that allow students to self-identify as animals, wear their furry costumes, eat sitting on the floor, do their business in litter boxes. So far there has not been a single factual foundation for any of these stories. Nor, for that matter, do the stories get it right when it comes to Furry culture and behavior (furries do not, for instance, wear their outfits to work and insist on acting as animals or pooping by their desks). But it didn't matter. 

2022 was a banner year for furry panic.

In Colorado, the GOP candidate for governor has tripled down on the claim that students are self-identifying as animals throughout the Denver with the support of their school districts, despite repeated debunking and denials. 

Minnesota also has a GOP gubernatorial candidate who repeated the litter box claim, despite debunking.

In Tennessee, school leaders had to take time to respond to a litter box claim by a state senator. 

South Carolina districts felt the need to respond to litter box stories. In Wyoming, parents told a board they were worried that furries were covered in equality policies. And Rhode Island. And Pennsylvania. And New York. And Illinois. And Oregon. Oh, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, too.

In Nebraska, in a rare apology, a state senator had to admit that the furry rumor he had repeated was baloney in March. In Texas, a GOP house candidate went with the relatively milder "lowered tables" story in January. A South Dakota school district had to explain to a parent in July that no, they would not be putting in litter boxes for furry students. Maine was battling back the litter box rumors in May. In April, a Wisconsin school district had to explain that they have no "furry protocol."

The whole hoax even has its own Wikipedia page. 

There has never been a single confirmed incident, ever.

And yet.

Texas has HB 54, "Relating to the display of and allowance for non-human behaviors in Texas schools." Also known as the "Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education (F.U.R.R.I.E.S.) Act." The bill has five legislators signed on as authors, and a whopping 51 co-authors. Governor Greg Abbott backs the bill. There are 22 pages of public comments compiled, and some of them are just as silly as you expect.

[W]e are tired of DEI, distractions, and affirmation of FURRY behavior in schools. Children should be learning how to read and excel in math, not playing make-believe at school. Please specifically write into the Code of Conduct that this behavior is not acceptable in schools or in society. In all K-12 schools.
Keatha Brown

Moms for Liberty, Montgomery TX

Children attend school are there to learn reading, writing, math, science, etc. I do respect each person has their own individual style when they dress but what I don't approve of is children attending school dressed like an animal and pretending, acting and portraying that they are indeed an animal. Its a distraction to other children attending classes at school and teachers and staff already have enough challenges in schools and they don't need these additional types of behaviors to deal with. Children shouldn't be acting like animals, making sounds like animals, wanting to eat like or dressing like animals. If they truly feel like they are an animal, they should be referred to a mental health professional. This would also go along the lines of a child wanting to be an alien
Jennifer White

Moms For Liberty Williamson County Round Rock, TX

Please support HB 54. I have been in education over 45 years. Non- human behaviors should not be accepted or catered to in public schools. What cat learns to read?
Susan Perez
Citizens for Education Reform
Lubbock, TX

And more in the same vein. The vast majority of the comments are opposed to the bill, hitting it with terms like "silly," "ridiculous," "stupid," and "waste of time." The Libertarian Party of Texas opposes it. Many accused the legislature of trying to solve a non-existent problem. Many tell stories of small children who like to play in ways that sometimes include animal noises. The parent of an autistic child explains how fur-like materials soothe the child. 

The bill itself is remarkably specific in defining "non-human behavior" with nine or so items on the list of "behaviors of accessories" not typically "displayed by a member of the homo sapiens species."  No animal noise, tails, ears, or licking yourself for "purposes of grooming or maintenance." There are exceptions for Halloween and school mascots or plays. 

But it's worth noting that the bill goes way beyond the standard furry litter box panic to target any sort of animal-ish behavior-- ears on headbands, tails, animal noises (like children don't make inhuman noises on a regular basis). 

The bill comes from Rep. Stan Gerdes. Gerdes was endorsed last year by Greg Abbott when he was up against Tom Glass, who was endorsed by AG Ken Paxton. Gerdes did vote for vouchers, but he also voted for the impeachment of Paxton. He previously worked under Rick Perry both when Perry was Texas governor and as US Secretary of Energy. He won his first election to the House in 2022, then again last year. Both campaigns were pricey-- $600K in 2022 and almost a million in 2024 (just for the primary). 

At Tuesday night's hearing, he claimed that the bill was in response to stories about furries that have been denied by the district superintendent. Asked if he could cite a single confirmed instance of a school making furry accommodations, Gerdes said he could not, even though he originally came out swinging, as reported by Benjamin Wermund at the Houston Chronicle:

When Gerdes introduced the legislation last month, he said he fully expected members of the subculture he was targeting to show up at the Capitol "in full furry vengeance" when the bill was heard.

"Just to be clear - they won't be getting any litter boxes in the Texas Capitol," the Smithville Republican said in a press release announcing the bill.

But there were no so-called furries or litter boxes at the late-night hearing Tuesday. Instead, the four people who showed up to testify against the measure included a public school teacher and a Texan who worried the measure could affect students with disabilities.

Rep. James Talarico labeled the bill as one more attempt by Abbott and his crew to discredit public schools:

That's because if you want to defund neighborhood schools across the state, you have to get Texans to turn against their public schools. So you call librarians groomers, you accuse teachers of indoctrination, and now you say that schools are providing litter boxes to students. That's how all of this is tied together.

 It's a bill designed to create furor over a non-existent problem. Currently the bill is sitting in committee, and if there is a lick of sense left in some corners of Texas, it will never emerge from there. 

Do Teachers Need To Be Liked?

A recent Robert Pondiscio post took me right back to many, many teacher lounge debates. "Do students need to like their teachers to learn?" was the question both in his post and in my lounge, and it seemed to come up again every time a student teacher passed through our halls.

The frequency with which this came up for newbies led me to think that maybe being liked is one of the answers that young teachers land on as they search for an answer to "How do I know whether I'm succeeding here?" This is one of the challenges that come with teaching being a solitary profession-- teachers have no place to get feedback except from students. But if you are looking for affirmation of your professional conduct from a child--well, that is not a great way to do adulting.

Teaching also comes with the challenge of being a profession in which relationships are very important, but they also mostly have to be created out of whole cloth by the adult in the room, and there isn't much in life that prepares us for that. 

So out of all that young teachers may land on, "Well, if I can get the kids to like me..." It doesn't help that so many fictional teacher models center on a beloved hero teacher who we get to see being beloved but not so much actually teaching.

But trying to get young humans to like you just leads to all sorts of problems. Heck, it leads to all sorts of problems among the young humans. The key to social success in high school is confidence, and "Please like me" energy projects the opposite. In a teacher, it projects both a lack of confidence and weakness, and while younger students may take pity on you, older students will not. And if they figure out you can be played by threats that are simply coded versions of "If you don't give us our way, we won't like you," you are done.

Teachers will sometimes land on other unproductive approaches to creating the relationship. For instance, "rule through fear" crowd. But mostly what you teach through that approach is some combination of sneakiness and resentment. Your students may comply when they are in front of you, but you'd better be careful about when you turn your back. Can they learn this way? Maybe, but I wouldn't bet on it. 

So what is the answer? Respect and competence.

Treat the students with respect. Know what you're doing. I would add "be kind," but that term is too open to misinterpretation, so let's leave it for now.

The experts say that one sign that a marriage is doomed is when contempt sneaks in. Same is true for the classroom; when you show contempt for your students, it's game over. The opposite of contempt is respect-- you treat them like they are functional, capable human beings deserving of decent treatment. And here's a hugely important fact lost to many in our current political climate-- you don't have to like someone to treat them with respect. You don't have to agree with someone to treat them with respect. You just have to recognize that they are human, and as such, deserve a certain base level of respect. 

Respect for students goes hand in hand with providing them with competent teaching and high-but-realistic expectations. Throw in Not Wasting Student Time as well. 

As a teacher, you've stepped up to take on a particular role, and students will sooner or later judge you based on how well you fulfill that role. "He's a nice guy, but a lousy teacher" is not the dream. The dream is to teach the students, to help them increase their understanding of themselves and the world. 

Pondiscio says that students like teachers they learn from (not vice versa), and I guess that's sort of true. But every kind of person in the world is going to pass through your classroom, and some of them are not going to like you, ever. Trying to win them over is a waste of time, but modeling how to respectfully get the work done even when you don't necessarily like the person you're working with-- that's a lesson they (and the other students watching how things play out) can carry into the world. 

On Your Own

There are so many ways in which the education debates have simply been a warm up for broader attacks on government as a whole.

Take the latest from nepo baby RFK Jr. talking to TV grifter Dr. Phil, as reported by the New York Times:

“I would say that we live in a democracy, and part of the responsibility of being a parent is to do your own research,” the health secretary said, in response to a question from a woman in the audience who asked how he would advise a new parent about vaccine safety. “You research the baby stroller, you research the foods that they’re getting, and you need to research the medicines that they’re taking as well.”

"Do your own research" is supposed to ring with independence and a refusal to blindly follow the sheeple, combined with an implicit claim that your google search is probably just as good as what those so-called experts tell you. 

But what I really hear in this exchange is a rejection of collective responsibility. "Can you help me make a safe choice for my child?" the young mother asks. "Not going to do it," replied the damned Secretary of Health and Human Services of the richest nation in the history of the world. "Your kid is not my problem. Your kid is not anyone else's problem. Go figure it out yourself."

This has always been the message of the school voucher movement since those long-ago days when Milton Friedman dreamed of a country where education was just one more commodity in a government-free marketplace. "Go get an education for your kid yourself. It's nobody else's problem, nobody else's concern, nobody else's responsibility. Here's a little voucher; now shut up and go away."

This is the Big Theme of MAGA/Trump/DOGE/Etc-- "We are tired of being told we have to care about other people." That's it. That's the whole thing. "I don't want to have to spend a cent of my money on anyone who isn't me." From the DOGE non-saving inefficient roll-back of anything the government does that involves looking out for other people (including collecting information that could help them make decisions) all the way to J D Vance's bizarre claim that Jesus says the further away from you someone is, the less Jesus wants you to love them. 

In fact, not only would they like to not have their money taken to spend on other people, but maybe they can get some of other people's money to spend on themselves. 

They can always draw a crowd of people who believe in the legitimate concerns-- government is too often inefficient and wasteful, being free to make choices is good, public schools have too often failed some students-- but those folks rarely get to drive the bus because they never think it would go So Far and going So Far is what the actual drivers intended from the start.

"Do your own research" because nobody else is going to do it, and if you don't have the resources, well, don't worry about it because I'm sure whatever you do will be just as good as any scientist or expert or teacher would come up with. The important part is that you do the science, health, and education research yourself. And if this bold new do-it-yourself approach means that society is sorted into different tiers and classes based on who has the most resources to take care of themselves, well, that's how God meant it to be. The social safety net and government-supported programs have just been a means to lift up people (with my damn money) when those folks should be staying in their proper places, cranking out babies to serve as future meat widgets for our wealthy leaders (who are wealthy and leaders because of their demonstrated merit). 

For MAGA, the DeVos's, the Kochtopus, and the rest of that crowd, public schools are just one more way that dollars are stolen to try to lift the lessers out of their proper place in society. It's the businesses, the corporations, that deserve the support and assistance of the government. For individual persons? Do your own research, do your own science, do your own educating-- because the regime is tired of helping take care of you, and they are trying to convince us that disregard is freedom. 

A Day In The Post-Mahmoud Classroom

It looks like the Supreme Court, guided once again by A) a profoundly impaired understanding of how schools work and B) a belief that it's unconstitutional to interfere with a religious conservative's desire to organize the world to suit their beliefs-- will decide in favor of Maryland parents (carefully selected so that this won't look like just a white christianist thing) who want to be able to opt their children out of any lessons that suggest that LGBTQ persons exist in the world. 

To be clear, the idea of alternative assignments doesn't bother me-- I've offered them in my own class for works that push the envelope. But this case takes us into whole new territory. 

So let's take a look at the classrooms of the future should this ruling come through. 

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"Okay, class. Today we're reading 'Pride Puppy,' the story of a puppy who gets lost at a Pride parade. That means that Pat, Sam, Eddie, and Xavier-- go down to the Special Room till I send someone to bring you back--"

"You mean the room that used to be the gym?"

"Yes, that's it. See you in a bit."

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"Mrs. Smith, I have a question about the Puppy story. Why did they--"

"Hold on a second, Ethel. Pat, Sam, Eddie, and Xavier-- head down to the room. This should only take a second."

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"Yes, this is Principal Shmershwerks. What can I do for you, Mrs. Smith. You're upset because Mr. Smith doesn't have any family pictures on his desk, and you figure that since only the gay teachers aren't allowed to put out family pictures, he must be one of the gay ones, and you would like him to...? Oh, either be less gay or you want Pat out of that class."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Okay. today we are going to-- what is it, Pat?"

"My mom says that the people on Page 16 look kind of gay to her, and she thinks I shouldn't have to read this book with the class."

"What do you mean, they look kind of -- never mind. Go to the room."

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"Okay, class. I see some of you were a bit confused by this early scene in The Sun Also Rises so let's look at the clues. When Jake first sees Brett in the novel, she's entering a cafe with some men described as having white hands and wavy hair. One makes a comment about seeing an--"

"Actual harlot!" 

"Right. And one calls another 'dear,' and Jake comments that 'I know they are supposed to be amusing, and one should be tolerant..."

Light bulbs go on around the room. "Ooooohh! It's a bunch of gay guys."

Six hands go up around the room. They hadn't figured out the LGBTQ content on their own.

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"Wait. Why are you being opted out of the entire unit on Marie Curie? She wasn't gay."

"But my folks say she is an unhealthy model because she didn't stay home and act as a proper helpmate for her husband. That's not the right way for a woman to--"

"Go."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The following students will be going to the room for the next two weeks while we complete our unit on Walt Whitman--"

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"Why are you students back already. I told you we'd be discussing Kate Chopin's The Awakening all week. Remember? Story of a woman unhappy to be a wife and mother, written by a lady author who wore pants?"

"Yes, we know. Sorry. But biology classes are doing evolution this week and the room is already full."

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"I don't understand. Why are you opting out of this lesson?"

"This poem definitely refers to the world as a globe, but in my family, we believe that the earth is flat."

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"Yes, Pat?"

"Mrs. Smith, my family has a religious objection to eating meat, and this character clearly has a hamburger for lunch. Expect to hear from my father's lawyer over the lack of advanced warning."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So, Mrs. Jones, you want Pat opted out of lessons because of the pronouns?  Not just 'those gay pronouns,' but you have objections to all pronouns?"

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"Yes, this is Principal Shmershwerks. Yes, hello Mrs. Wiggins. You want Sam moved out of Mrs. Smith's classroom because why?...Oh, because you saw Mrs. Smith's new haircut and it looks kind of butch."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Okay, class. According to the posting on today's opt out request list, Pat's family objects to the portrayal of geocentric orbit, Sam's family objects to the suggestion that God loves short people, Quinn's family objects to the portrayal of talking fish on religious grounds, three other families object to the use of caricatures on moral grounds, and Patsy's mother has moral objections to any use of the word 'oral'. All of these objections have been referred to the District Office of Moral and Religious Issues, which will consult with the State Office of Religious Concerns, and we'll let you know whether your religious issues are officially recognized by the state or not."

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OK: More Edu-spats

While awaiting SCOTUS's take on the Big Oklahoma story-- the attempt to create the illusion that a religious charter school-- do not miss the other ongoing crazypants fussing going on over various other issues.

Oklahoma is wrestling with some new history standards, subject to Edu-dudebro-in-chief Ryan Walters intense desire to jam his version of Christianity into schools while simultaneously making google eyes at Dear Leader in DC.

Here's the thing-- the standards were rather christianism-infused to begin with. But then as the new year rolled around, a bump or three appeared in the road.

There's fallout from ongoing feuding among Oklahoma's big name GOP politicians. Walters tried to get State Attorney General Gentner Drummond to make some noise about Trump's anti-diversity edicts to support Walters own response, but Drummond, who has often clashed with Walters, called it "manufactured political drama" intended to get Walters more attention. Drummond is running for governor, Kevin Stitt wants to keep being governor, and Walters sure looks like he's running for something (especially now that Dear Leader didn't call him to DC).

Then Walters decided to require all schools to send him a list of every undocumented immigrant child, and even Stitt thought that was too much ("picking on kids" he called it) and fired three members of the Board of Education. Walters put two of them on a new made-up thing called the "Trump Advisory Committee" because his old BFF Stitt is now part of the "liberal DC swamp." But Walters now has to deal with three new members of the board who don't appear to be either impressed by or afraid of Walters, and the history standards have emerged as the first topic of dispute. 

The standards were tossed in front of the board, complete with three new members, in February, accompanied by a demand that these needed to get okayed super quick. Only it turns out that the final version of the standards had some changes that had been quietly slipped in there, most notably a requirement that Oklahoma students "identify discrepancies in the 2020 election results." Those changes were not discussed, and the newly appointed board members somehow didn't know about them.

Walters has handled this challenge to his authority with aplomb and diplomacy. Ha, just kidding. He has called the new board members liars and accused them of creating a "fake controversy." "I can't make you do the reading," he said, referring to the standards with changes that nobody was told about. 

"I'm not a speed reader," said new member Ryan Deatherage, reminding Walters that he had asked for more time at the February meeting.

"I did my homework," said (more or less) new member Michael Tinney, pointing out that he downloaded the standards to read, but that what he read was the pre-sneaky-changes standards.

Sasha Ndisabiye and Bennett Brinkman have been all over this for NonDoc. They report:

Asked after the meeting why Walters did not at least notify board members of what changed between the initial version of the standards and the final version, Walters declined to give a reason besides saying he made it clear to board members that the version of the standards given to them less than 24 hours before the meeting was the updated and final version.

“I don’t control when Gov. (Kevin) Stitt put these board members on here. That’s what he chose to do,” Walters said. “It was at the very end of the process.”

I think we could safely call this a passive-aggressive hissy fit. And to add to the cheery atmosphere, the GOP chair of the Senate Education Committee, Rep. Adam Pugh, filed a resolution shortly after the board fireworks saying the Senate doesn't like the standards and will send them back to the board for a do-over. 

Walters continues to demonstrate what it looks like to put politics and personal brand building over educating actual young humans. In the meantime, Oklahomans can consider the value of adding The Big Lie to the curriculum when there are so many smaller lies near to hand. 

ICYMI: Spamalot Edition (4/27)

I'm playing in another pit orchestra, this time for a local community theater production of Spamalot, a show that makes me really want to get out my copy of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but I don't have time to because I'm playing in a pit orchestra.

But I still have time for the weekly roundup of read-worthy pieces. Here we go.

Donald Trump’s war on children

Someone at the Washington Post messed up and let Catherine Rampall post this big-picture look at all the ways Dear Leader has been trying to make life worse for the next generation.

How Trump Is Using Strategic Chaos to Reengineer Public Education

Julian Vasquez Heilig posts about the tactics of Dear Leader and what it means for education policy (watch that Overton window).

Harvard Stands Up

The Academic Freedom newsletter takes a look at Harvard's tussle with the regime. 

Harvard Takes the Gloves Off

This view is from David Pepper. Dang, but who knew that we would be cheering for Harvard some day.

Florida’s Proposed School Grading Change Isn’t About Accountability—It’s About Undermining Public Education

Sue Kingery Woltanski looks at the latest Big Bad Idea in Florida as part of its never-ending quest to kneecap public schools.

Et Tu, Urban Institute?

Stephen Dyer looks at a new study that cuts all sorts of corners on its way to saying that school vouchers are swell!

Draft executive order outlines plan to integrate AI into K-12 schools

From the Washington Post again, but all you need is the headline. And if you've not been grasping the kind of authoritarian threat that AI poses, let this be your big clue.

Executive Disorder

Audrey Watters responds to that edict for AI, in case you need an explanation of just how bad it is. 

The Silent Professor

This is an oldie, but I only just ran across it. What would you do if you lost your voice, but you still had to teach? Joseph Finckel tells his story.

Bringing Critical Thinking to the Classroom: Introducing the “InfluenceWatch Educational Guide”

Kali Fontanilla has developed some teaching materials based on the InfluenceWatch media guide to bias. If I were still in the classroom, I would be considering this.

Student Outcome Focused Governance is Impuissant

Not sure what SOFG actually is? Thomas Ultican has dug up answers to what it is, and why you should be wary. 

RIP, Libraries and Museums

Nancy Flanagan considers yet another institution that Dear Leader wants to trash.

Congress Should Defy the Trump Administration and Save Head Start

Dear Leader's budget proposal includes the cutting of Head Start. Jan Resseger explains why Congress should put the kibosh on the plan.

In search of solace

Benjamin Riley is grappling with the role of tech in the erosion of democracy, and he turns to musing with people of faith to get a handle on it.

This week at Forbes.com I looked at some of the arguments being brought up this coming week for the religious charter school case, and I looked at the court order holding off Dear Leader's anti-DEI measures for schools. 

Join me on my newsletter, and I can haunt your email inbox without you having to do a thing. It's free and always will be.

God Loves A Sucker

Lifewise is in a state of alarm over candy.

We need to have a long talk about Lifewise some time, a company that is making hay out of an Ohio law that says schools must let students out to attend church lessons-- a sort of Skip School For Jesus. It's a chance for conservative christianists to recruit children right out of school, and make a ton of money while doing it. Lifewise sets up a site for church school, and buses students to it and back during the school day (and if that sounds like a terrible idea, it is, but we'll talk about that another day). 

It's one more way to try to work around the wall between church and state, but it turns out that Lifewise needs the use of a particular tool, and they grump when they can't have it.

Candy.

Well, candy and toys. Turns out that students who skip out for church time come back to school with "candy, stickers, or tchotchkes." and Lifewise attorney Jeremy Dys says that some schools are forbidding this. You know-- in the same way that schools don't allow candy and toys during the day because it's disruptive and troublesome. All over the country you'll find schools where students can't even bring in cupcakes for their birthday because of health policies. 

But attorney Dys says forbidding students to bring back the trinkets from their Lifewise session-- well, "that’s restricting free speech and denying students their religious liberty." And he feels strongly enough about it to threaten "some very serious litigation that is not going to be fun for anybody."

Dys is an attorney at First Liberty, yet another of those right wing legal shops dedicated to imposing christinist political beliefs on everyone. 

The point here, of course, is that promising the students treats if they attend the Lifewise program is an important part of the recruitment process. Maybe the argument is that God really loves a sucker and Jesus has commanded His people to hand out lots of stickers, but I can't say I've ever seen either idea crop up in the scripture, and I'd personally rather not see my church resorting to the same recruitment techniques as creepy guys in vans. 

If Lifewise has a message that is just as powerful and uplifting and life-improving as they claim, surely they don't need to add candy and treats to sell it.