Safer schools issues guidance on furries in school

You had me there, OP - typo in your title!

Ferries in schools?
So that's where @realfeminist hid them! Slid them in under the 6 inch gaps at the bottom of the classroom doors perhaps?

oh...

furries!
Shouldn't be anywhere near kids/schools! imo of course.

@EpicChaos as someone who does art for furries as a side hustle, can confirm they should be nowhere near schools.
Absolutely nowhere near.

Kids need boundaries, removing boundaries just encourages more extreme behaviour
And as per earlier pp’s, adult furries should be nowhere near schools, or imo, nowhere near children in any context!

I hope they make sure they use life vests.

Seriously though, placing adult kinks on kids is exactly everything that's fucking wrong in schools these days.

Such a weird article. Reads almost like a spoof mocking safeguarding. Is the similarity in name to Safe Schools Alliance deliberate?

I was also very confused by the name Safer Schools and thought it was Safe Schools Alliance. Interesting to read that the former is funded by big business.

How does this furry thing even work if you have a school uniform?

Our poor children. The adults who should be putting in place boundaries and protecting them from dodgy adults repeatedly failing.

BUT NO DONKEY BEASTS OF BURDEN

Here's a link to the relevant guidance. Includes a furry risk assessment.

https://oursaferschools.co.uk/2023/04/24/furries/

Mumsnet gets a wee mention.

Also:

'One thing important to note is that Furries are not innately sexual. There is a public misconception about the sexualised nature of the Furry Fandom, but it is not the main draw or point of the community. However, as safeguarding professionals, we recognise that the uniquely personal perimeters of Furry culture could potentially create a scenario someone with a sexual interest in children may be able to exploit.'

If it’s not a sexual thing why are they at Pride events?

Confusing title 😬

Why would they even be in schools? But yes, I think children need to be kept away from this adult, sexualised nonsense.

Attention furries. What you do in the privacy of your own home with other consenting adults is up to you. Dress up, role-play, fill your boots, I don’t care. Enjoy! Just leave kids out of it FFS. Stop queering boundaries. Kids shouldn’t even know about furries. What next, guidance on Littles? BDSM?

This link says there is no evidence to support the claim of furries being a sexual thing! This from a safeguarding group giving advice to adults who guide our children ffs... if anyone had spent 10 mins online they'd surely see that adults are grooming children and it's highly sexualised. Kids like the costumes and expect to find like minded kids on these forums and instead they are finding adults who are indulging their kids and encouraging kids to do the same. It has no place in schools at all and it's very concerning that the people advising seem blind to what's going on.

Indulging their kinks that should say

that article is a daily mail classic. everyone in it sounds completely and utterly insane

But last night the idea of 'normalising' this 'demented' past-time by providing guidance on how to support 'furries' was condemned as 'madness' by schools watchdog, The Campaign for Real Education.
Chairman Chris McGovern told MailOnline: 'This sounds like complete madness.
'By providing guidance, Safer Schools are legitimising and normalising demented, delusional and deranged behaviour.

the only thing schools need to know about furries is that they should prevent any bullying of pupils based on what they do in their spare time (no shit sherlock) and they should also not tolerate students behaving like animals at school (also no shit)

As a West coast Scotland dweller I'd love some ferries, even if they are in schools, at this point, any functioning ferry would be a bonus.

I seriously doubt 'safer schools' are a genuine safeguarding organisation. I think it's one of those cases of 'identifying as' something that you're actually the opposite of.

This seems sadly common these days.

It's a safeguarding fail to even produce a guide about furries for kids. Age inappropriate - which is something you're not supposed to do quite explicitly stated in Keeping Children Safe in Education the Statutory safeguarding guidance for the UK. So this sounds to me as if it's breaching that Statutory Safeguarding guidance.

However, I don't think there's a single teacher who's so lost control of all reason that they'd actually use this. Apart from anything else, there really isn't the time for this rubbish, teachers are struggling to catch children up in the basics like English and Maths after Covid and the profound underfunding and lack of Maths teachers. Such a deep lack of understanding of children and schools (that it is purporting to be targeted at) that it almost seems deliberate.

April Fool? (Clutching at straws)

If so, it's really sad that there's any question it could be real. Queer theory has a lot to answer for when it comes to destroying safeguarding for kids.

No teacher would also discuss the 'benefits' of the furry community with a child without also considering the 'risks'. Jeez the claim is this is somehow linked to Zurich, the insurer.

What kind of insurer only considers benefits and not risks?

I really hope this is satire.

If true, this is a classic case of a dodgy adult with an agenda trying to push it onto kids. Red flags galore.