School administrators in Colorado and Minesota have joined the long list of officials having to spend time denying baseless claims that students have begun identifying as cats.
This week Republican Heidi Ganahl, who is running to be the state’s Governor, made the wacky claim the students were identifying as cats in as many as 30 different schools across the US state of Colorado.
The urban myth has been popping up regularly in different jurisdictions across the United States over the last two years but has also appeared in Canada, and there’s even been similar stories here in Australia.
School boards in Indiana, Ohio, Utah, Idaho, Michigan, Arkansas and Texas have previously denied the claims.
The basic story is students are identifying as cats, and some part of the school world is being adjusted for their special needs. Often the claim is that kitty litter boxes are being put in unisex bathrooms, or tables in the cafeteria are being lowered so students can eat like animals. Those claiming the existence of cat-students usually argue that acceptance of transgender youth has led to the outbreak of feline-identifying youth.
“It sounds absolutely ridiculous, but it’s happening all over Colorado and schools are tolerating it. It’s insane,” Ganahl claimed during an appearance on the Jimmy Sengenberger Show last Saturday.
“What on earth are we doing? Knock it off, schools. Put your foot down. Like, stop it. Let’s get back to teaching basics and not allow this woke ideology, ideological stuff, infiltrate our schools,” she said.
Ganahl said over a hundred parents had contacted her raising concern about students who believed they were cats.
Later in the week she doubled down on her claims while chatting to TV news host Spencer Soicher saying she had many examples of students claiming they were cats.
Bret Miles, the executive director of the Colorado Association of School Executives, told the Denver Post that the claims were very frustrating.
“School districts are spending time chasing down storylines that were purely for political gain. They have nothing to do with what kids are experiencing at school, and its shock and awe. It’s just incredibly frustrating,” he said.
Earlier this month high profile Republican politician Marjorie Taylor Greene also spouted the idea that schools were making special arrangements for cat-identifying students.
Speaking outside a rally in Pennsylvania for former US President Donald Trump, Greene also claimed the stories about students needing kitty litter boxes was true.
“They’re embracing lies, literally embracing lies,” Greene told reporters outside the event. “If some student wants to pretend like a cat and use a litterbox after school, that’s their prerogative, whatever. But no, the school, the school resources and the other students and teachers should not have to be put through that because it’s a lie and we have to reject them.”
Greene is well known for making dubious statements having previously declared that Pride month will lead to the extinction of humankind, and warning that fake meat was being made in “peach tree dishes” (we think she meant petri dishes), and earlier this year she described Nancy Pelosi from the Democrats has having “gazpacho police” who spied on other members of congress.
Gazpacho is a cold Spanish soup, as where the police in Nazi Germany were known as the Gestapo.
Republican Lauren Boebert has also recently shared the claim about cat-identifying students.
Boebert spoke at a Mesa County Republican Women luncheon in Colorado on Monday, where she mentioned she received a call last week from a father whose kid was in trouble at school because he “stepped on a furry.”
“They are putting litter boxes in schools for people who identify as cats,” Boebert said. “Durango is doing this. This is how extreme it is.” Boebert said citing a local region.
Once again school officials were forced to issue a statement saying there was zero truth in the claim.
Boebert previous said universities were issuing degrees in “lesbian dance theory” and has argued that the people should not be able to make any decisions about their sexuality or gender before the age of twenty-one.
Meanwhile over in Minesota, fellow Republican Scott Jensen, was caught on camera making the claim that students are being given litter boxes to urinate in.
“But what about education?” Jensen said. “What are we doing to our kids? Why are we telling elementary kids that they get to choose their gender this week? Why do we have litter boxes in some of the school districts so kids can pee in them, because they identify as a furry? We’ve lost our minds. We’ve lost our minds.” Jensen said.
Heidi Ganahl image published via a Creative Commons 3.0 license.
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