Heads should stop teachers allowing children to identify as cats, says No 10

[IwantToRetire]

The spokesman said that teachers should not teach “contested opinions as facts” and called for headteachers to intervene in extreme cases.

“It would not be right to comment on the actions of a specific individual or a specific school without knowing the full details, but we understand why these reports will be concerning for parents,” the spokesman said.

“In broad terms, teachers have a responsibility to encourage their students to engage respectfully with those they disagree with.

“They should also not be teaching contested opinions as fact, shutting down valid discussions and debates.

“It’s important parents and carers are reassured that children aren’t being influenced by personal views of those teaching them. Any example that strays from this would be wrong and we would expect headteachers to act.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/20/rye-college-children-neo-pronouns-cats-moons-rishi-sunak/

Unlike the headline the article makes it clear that a "spokesman" (how old fashioned and sexist shouldn't that be spokesperson?!) has said this so Sunak may or may not have a public opinion about this ...

But the Telegraph seems to be keen to keep the issue of self identifying on their front pages.

When I first heard about children doing this I thought (hoped) that it was younger children making fun of the trans generation, but seems not.

NB article is behind a paywall but can be read at https://archive.ph by entering the Telegraph URL above into the box.

(The cat in picture below looks very cross. Probably feels the same way GC women feel - outraged at the notion that some young human could in any way know or speak with experience based knowledge about being a cat!)

Hang on.

Isn't the narrative that you already have a gender, & you might need to have endless surgery to repair the worst.

So are parents' opinions regarding their child important or not?

Years ago, the same logic was applied to fgm. Because it was practiced by certain groups, teachers handwaived away responsibility due to fears of racism. Even though misogyny meant healthy body parts were being needlessly cut off. And a lot of the girls who had that done to then had been brainwashed into thinking that it was a good thing and they wanted and needed it done.

Thankfully, people like Hibo Wedre convinced others that abuse carried out by a minority is still abuse.

And now we have a movement that the very people in the tavistock championing it described it as transing out the gay. Healthy body parts are being cut off due to a combination of misogyny and homophobia and 'vulberable group' is being used as a shield for teachers not to do their basic safeguarding role.

I'd say the position is very clear. Any act that results in the harm of a child, like muschensons, anorexia, fgm etc should not be enabled by teachers.

Anyone going to acknowledge that this never actually happened?

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/gender-row-school-none-of-our-pupils-identify-as-a-cat

I'd say the position is very clear. Any act that results in the harm of a child, like muschensons, anorexia, fgm etc should not be enabled by teachers.

Teachers and medics, with fabricated induced illness should be imprisoned.

Read the thread, Merlin. You always think you know more than everyone else and you never do.

Well the recording happened and everyone heard the teacher’s response so no

The cat part isn’t the main issue with what was said

I have no idea if there is a child who identifies as a cat at that school. I have have no idea if there are any children in any U.K. schools identifying as cats. I do know the mother of the child referenced earlier who identifies as a gay male hologram, so nothing would surprise me (I’m not going to say anything about that case, other than to say it is distressing and there are far too many children being seriously failed by many institutions, including schools).

Having been through the full complaint process with our daughter’s former school, up to and including a regulatory investigation which was signed off by the Secretary for Education in Scotland, I would no longer take any statement by any school on this issue at face value. I have first hand experience of how schools can blatantly and repeatedly lie (including to a regulator) so possibly there are no pupils identifying as cats at this school, but possibly there are.

If there is a child at this school who identifies as a cat at this school, it is possible it is lighthearted and done for a bit of attention, a bit of dramatic flair (which, IMO, should still be ignored by staff). It is also possible it is done as a maladaptive coping mechanism, a child from a troubled background or who struggles so much at school, this is their way of coping, of escaping. If so, this child needs appropriate support by staff and it should not be viewed as an identity to be affirmed. If it is the latter, and this child exists, this entire episode will be exceptionally distressing for them, and I put the blame for that on the teacher who handled it just about as poorly as she could.

I don’t actually have much interest as to whether or not there is a child who identifies as a cat at that school. While that is likely what got the press interested in the story, the recording indicates there is a an issue at that school. The way that teacher spoke to those girls is appalling and it’s a bit of a microcosm of what is happening up and down the country of what happens if anyone has the temerity to push back against gender ideology in schools.

noble says Cass has stated that both supporting social transition and doing nothing are not neutral acts. This is true but is a misinterpretation of what “doing nothing” means. Doing nothing means precisely that- doing nothing. That is not what is being suggested by Cass. Cass is suggesting that a holistic approach be taken, that underlying issues be explored and addressed, while giving a health warning to supporting social transition. NHSE have recently come out with an even stronger statement saying social transition has “potentially profound impacts” and they make it clear social transition should only be supported where the NHS considers it necessary for the child’s overall health, wellbeing and social functioning.

Somehow children with gender distress/dysphoria have become exceptionalised and too many schools incorrectly feel they are competent to make decisions about pupils that they would not make under other circumstances and then when there is pushback, whether from other pupils or parents, the threats come out, the lies come out. It is horrific and it needs to stop. The cat story is a sideshow here.

Well done for being able to get your SMT to do this.

Mine are firmly entrenched in GI and refuses to shift. They quite literally wear the badges.

I think my school probably follows the line the new guidance is going to take. No name or uniform changes without explicit parental permission, third spaces provided for trans identifying children not wanting to use facilities for their sex.

Despite this, some younger teachers think they are being cool and in with the kids to use explicitly unauthorised name changes.

Despite this, some younger teachers think they are being cool and in with the kids to use explicitly unauthorised name changes.

They can be the cool prisoners then, as that is where those with fabricated induced illness are supposed to go. I thought teachers are supposed to report such things and police arrest then prosecute via the CPS. The teachers should get the mental health support they require inside.

This is absolutely real in schools. There is a child in my town who self ids as a cat. They have tried to express this ID in school but, thankfully, are not allowed to. Upon leaving school each day they don their tails (multiple) and ears. I have first hand knowledge of this.

Out of interest I asked a relative who works in a secondary school - yup they are familiar with it too. In this case a teacher didn’t accept it and told the girl to take off her cat accoutrements. She refused because “I’m a cat”. This is a teenager. It wasn’t clear what the ultimate outcome was though.

Seems like it is happening. I’m not surprised the school in the recording case are denying it. Schools deny they have any bullying. Our school head denied they were teaching gender ideology but in fact individual teachers spout it regularly. Maybe in this case they’ve got the girl to agree she isn’t actually a real cat, or as a PP said they are trying to help the girl and her family avoid media interest.

I’m not surprised the school in the recording case are denying it.

And what about the child who was in the classroom at the time also saying that the child in question does not identify as a cat?

It seems clear that there are pupils across the land who are dressing up as cats. Furries are a thing. BUT these pupils do not actually think they are cats.

It is entirely possible for the girl in the recording to be claiming that someone identifies as a cat, and to think that is the case, and for it not to be true.

Cass is suggesting that a holistic approach be taken, that underlying issues be explored and addressed, while giving a health warning to supporting social transition.

By who? Do you know how hard it is to get any sort of mental health support for kids? I don't think you want schools doing it.

The.Story.Is.Not.That.A.Child.Identifies.As.A.Cat

The concern does not fall apart on finding out that there isn't a CatKid in class.

CatKidGate highlights the problem and allows discussion that otherwise wouldn't happen.

The cat thing might easily have been the girls saying but she's a girl about a non-binary pupil, or transboy. And the teacher telling them that's discriminatory. And the girls responding so what if she identified as a cat, would we have to go along with that, because that's just crazy.

The teacher appeared stung into a hyperbolic reply by claiming they said the girl should be in an asylum. Their refutation of that sounds genuine.

Conversations are being played out like that absolutely everywhere.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+16&version=NIV

The destransitioned autistic child is to be abandoned with the sins of the sacred castes of the AGP and FII activists/ professionals as their scapegoat.

The surgeon's curtain etc.

It has been said that to shut down the child's hypothalamus, which controls emotions, sexuality, and the aesthetic sence, is to shut down what makes us human.

In the following I am questioning, not dehumanising people.

So if trans rights are human rights, what are trans? Why do they need human rights if they are not human, what other inanimate object of animal can obtain humans rights? How can you take away the human in someone to make them not a human?

I agree, Datun - the girls may have been talking hypothetically rather than saying there was an actual girl identifying as a cat. Obviously the big issue with that recording was not the cat element but the teacher saying things like there are three sexes and telling the girls they needed to go to a different school if they didn't respect others' identity.

As to whether the "children identifying as animals" story is true or not, this is interesting:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12223999/amp/Inside-world-furries-cat-pupils-dressing-whiskers-tails-school.html

If people look at the early threads before the media got hold of it the main concerns were the teacher’s response not the cat part

Those issues are still there

Dear Lord, of course I’m well aware of how hard it is to get any sort of mental health support for children (the clue might be in my user name). I absolutely don’t want schools trying to provide the mental health support for these children - surely that is obvious. The problem is that far too many staff have been supporting social transition (often without the parents being aware) as a misguided form of mental health support. This needs to stop.

Cass is proposing a new system for gender distressed/dysphoric children - the review and NHSE have documented this. Of course it will take time to be implemented, possibly it won’t be successful, and in the meantime, more children like my daughter will be harmed. However, schools making decisions on profound interventions is not acceptable in any way shape or form. Again, our children should not be exceptionalised.

https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1671726201323307008?cxt=HHwWgIC2-e6HlbMuAAAA

How will these youngsters cope once they leave school. Will an employer accept them. What kind of social life will they have?

Maybe employers will have to employ a certain number of animal identifiers under diversity and inclusivity laws.

If people look at the early threads before the media got hold of it the main concerns were the teacher’s response not the cat part

Yes. In fact I think most of us barely noticed the cat element, we were very focused on the completely over the top response from the teacher. But then the Telegraph went a bit mad with the children identifying as animals idea, which allowed a whole bunch of pompous self-important types to say this obviously wasn't happening, the wicked media were demonising a vulnerable minority group again.

So I don't know whether children in UK schools are identifying as animals, and whether they are being indulged by teachers. I suspect, reading the Mail article linked above, that there are some examples of this. But it's really not the main issue. The main issue is that schools are pushing an insane ideological viewpoint (insane as in, it's both irrational and morally offensive) and disciplining children who dissent from it.

Exactly Sunny. It’s almost as if sone ppl are heavily focused on the cat part to distract from the fact the teacher told them there were 3 genders and called them despicable 🤔