Furries in schools

[Jamfirstest]

I have name changed for this. Forgive me if this isn't the right board but I need to talk this through to get my head around this.

Another parent has just told me there is a furry community of young people at her dc secondary school which is in my city and an ordinary comprehensive.

The school is humouring the accessories and so on and they now have a designated room in the school to congregate. Apparently there was a request for a litter tray in the toilets though this was denied (google tells me this aspect might have been a hoax attempt).

The secondaries around here are super strict with uniforms. How is this allowed???

So I'm told some children will only respond in animal noises.

I knew what a furry was before. What adults do for fun is none of my business. But this in schools???? Or have I been under a rock?

It is odd how many people seem so desperate to believe this isn't happening. Nowhere else would a load of parents share their DC's similar experiences at school and be called liars and that it's all a hoax because the schools are denying it!

People are not necessarily saying "it isn't happening", I am sure some kids have jumped on a bandwagon to do what kids do, mess around, go along with fads, and take the piss out of the adults along the way. But they aren't furries as in a sexual "identity". Framing it as such is a problem of the adults.

I don’t think it’s happening at my school, I certainly haven’t seen any tails or ears or crawling. However if some kids did decide to pretend to be animals at break or lunchtime I’m not sure why the school should involve itself in that. Kids muck around and play games and this seems fairly harmless, if weird.

There was a girl in my dd class who said she was a cat for a year and used to go around miaowing. She was autistic and apparently a lot of other kids laughed at her because of it which my dd said was mean. I said it is mean (and I did feel sorry for her) but if you are going to go around saying you’re a cat and miaowing then it’s only realistic that you’ll get picked on.

I have no idea if her parents discouraged it or how the teachers dealt with it (or whether they just ignored it). Autistic or not, kids need to realise that if you go around doing and saying silly things then you’ll attract negative attention. The same way that I wouldn’t go to work in a clown outfit and expect no one to laugh or comment on it. It’s an important lesson in learning how to fit into a civilised society and know what’s appropriate and what’s not.

An autistic child who is allowed by her parents to behave like a cat is being abused by them, pure and simple.

Lots of people earlier on in the thread didn't believe posters who said it was happening at their school and said it was all a hoax.

My DD and her friends (Y7) are into making animal masks and tails. They are all quite crafty and enjoy stories/games about animal subcultures etc (to be fair I was the same at that age and loved Watership Down etc). I think it's a hobby and a bit of an escape from the everyday and from needing to be "cool" or into boys and fashion etc. I wouldn't say their group are autistic but I can see how it would appeal to the autistic or alternative kids.

However they do not: wear ears/tails to school, meow, walk on all fours, or demand litter trays. Neither is it in any way a sexual thing. So in this case I am not concerned. I agree it would not be appropriate for schools to start pandering to it as a "special identity".

I guess this kind of thing is a spectrum from the completely normal (or even nice) to the somewhat worrying.

Yes, a lot of different things are going on at the same time. So we have posters pointing to a particular thing and declaring that that thing is not going on so nothing is going on. Which is simply a way of trying to shut down discussion. Which has led to some posters to pose the interesting question: What's the big need to discredit people posting about things that, from their direct experience, they know are going on?

My main concern with kids identifying as "furries" is that they will come into contact with adult furries, who are a lot less innocent and may not have the best intentions towards vulnerable and naive children who wander into their communities.

Some of the autistic children I've taught in a send school behave like cats given any opportunity.

We ask that it's at playtime, appropriate and encourage / support more age appropriate play as they move into y5 and 6.

(Always cats.)

Also a teacher; also not happening in my school.

I did have a student last year tell me he couldn't do his homework because he's a cat... he got a detention for not doing his homework and it's never been mentioned since. Funny, that.

The kids are absolutely obsessed with furries, though. Claiming to be one, saying others are, making cardboard masks all the time. No one is wearing other accoutrements in school, though I have seen teenagers in town with tails, masks and on all fours scampering down the High Street (how filthy!)

I'm guessing, seeing as you posted this in the women's rights subforum, that this is just another attempt at trans froth. 🙄

The question is who is putting the furries label on these kids?

Is it just kids being kids and dressing up / acting like animals and outside adults are putting some sort of label on it and making it a weirder thing than it should be?!

I'm guessing, seeing as you've come onto the thread to dismiss it, that you're just another person who thinks a woman is "anyone who identifies as a woman" and having to confront the absurdity of that logic, by hearing about children identifying as animals, makes you uncomfortable.

Erm, the kids themselves? They have unfettered access to the Internet from a very young age and they all know everything about everything (according to them). Furries and therians are not exactly difficult to find content about. Or whatever else the latest fad is. It's certainly not adults in school pushing this onto them.

You guessed wrong.

But it is insulting to most people's intelligence to attempt to disguise a trans froth thread as something else.

And it undermines the actual struggles girls and women are facing when you relate it to cats and dogs and litter trays.

I don't think it's a disguised thread. I think they are two separate phenomena with some parallels. I'm glad you don't believe that identity trumps reality, but many people do.

My daughter is Yr 8 now but she started telling me about this as soon as she started secondary. I was quite shocked when she started talking about furries at school, she said that's what everyone called them.

She said it's always girls, never boys, that go around pretending to be cats or dogs.

They are definitely not allowed to wear furry stuff on normal days but she said some do come in with ears and tails and furry hats on none uniform days.

One of the girls in her class was growling at her in a lesson and snapping her teeth at her and my daughter said "What the hell are you doing?"
Dd got told off by the teacher for being unkind.

I'm a secondary teacher and I haven't seen or heard of any of this bollocks at my school.

My DD has mentioned this at her secondary school. She said there was an anti-bullying PowerPoint presentation and one of the slides shown said ‘What is a Furry’. So then they were all talking about it afterwards and discussing who at school was a furry….

I do agree that their idea of a furry is quite different to the sexual fetish stuff, however my concern is what they might stumble across if they start looking into what a furry is and looking it up on the internet.

I am hoping it’s another silly thing that some kids are doing for attention and it will fizzle out in a couple of years.

Yes, the question is, how have they come to think that this is about being a furry?

And there are two elements there - the first being, why are so many kids thinking they can"identify" as an animal. I think it's clear they have internalized the idea that such a thing is possible, and that's related to what they are hearing about gender identity.

The second being that furries are not something they've generated - they are an established adult subculture with a significant adult fetish component. It should have nothing to offer kids and they shouldn't be in contact with it.

It's not just chance they see what they are doing as part of that subculture, like they have picked up the name. You can see from the costumes, anime, etc, they are seeing themselves as part of that specific group, but they are naive about what it really involves.

Why furry?

Why not robot, or tree or puff of gas? Why not spiderman or a power ranger?

it’s very much a fantasy play. That’s what small kids to. These are bigger kids so why do we let them pretend? It’s disruptive for the other kids.