Debunked School Restroom Litter Box Claims Resurface With New Year

ACROSS AMERICA — The conspiracy theory that some school districts are providing litter boxes for students who identify as animals, or “furries,” is making the rounds again as the 2022-23 school year begins.

The litter box claims are absurd on their face, but illustrate the persistence of efforts to paint as radical those schools making genuine efforts to develop cultures that are tolerant of students who openly question their sexual identities and gender preferences, critics say.

The claims come as school boards nationwide wrestle with book bans and calls for the removal of those that focus on sexual activity, sexual identity or gender identity.

So far this year, the false and consistently debunked story has turned up in at least three states, North Carolina, Oregon and Kentucky.

The claim perverts both schools’ efforts to be inclusive and the furry culture, according to the scientists at Furscience, who study furries and their fandom.

Under those scientists' definition, furries are “a diverse community of fans, artists, writers, gamers, and role players,” most of whom create an anthropomorphized animal character (fursona) with whom they identify and can function as an avatar within the community.

The conspiracy theory can be traced back to at least December 2021, when a parent addressing a Michigan school board began discussing a “somewhat nefarious” national agenda being pushed on students. She falsely claimed that at least one of the schools in her town had a “litter box for kids that identify as cats.”

• Related: No Litter Boxes For Students Who Identify As Cats, Superintendent Says

The Midland Public Schools superintendent quickly dismissed the claim as absurd, and said in a message to parents “there have never been litter boxes” in school restrooms and said it was “unconscionable” that he even had to address.

The claim had no more been debunked before it popped up again in western Iowa.

“There are absolutely no litter boxes in any restroom within our school district,” Carroll Community Schools superintendent Casey Berlau said in an email to parents published by the Carroll Times Herald. “Staff members are not encouraging or accommodating anyone behaving or identifying as a cat or any other animal.

“It is very unfortunate that this rumor has been spread over the last several weeks,” he continued. “It has done nothing but distract people from the important work that we need to accomplish on a daily basis.”

The scenario was repeated in North Dakota, South Dakota, Indiana and New York schools last year.

The narrative is part of a darker agenda to put restrictions on LGBTQ students, according to Keenan Crow, the director of policy and advocacy at the LGBTQ advocacy group One Iowa.

“The real goal with comparing furries to trans people and bringing up stuff like this is, one, to make fun of furries and say, ‘Oh, aren’t they so silly,’ ” Crow told the Iowa Capital Dispatch. “And ‘Oh, by the way, transgender identities are just as silly as this. And we should reject the request of a transgender student to use the restroom that matches their gender identity, in the same way that we should reject a student request to use a litter box.’ ’’

To Crow’s point, two Minnesota Republican lawmakers repeated the litter box claim knowing it wasn’t true, but using it as an anecdote in support of giving the state Legislature control over the questions in the Minnesota Student Survey, the Minnesota Reformer reported.

Survey questions about gender and sexuality, Rep. Tim Miller asserted in support of his colleague Rep. Steve Drazkowski’s bill, encourage “moving to the absurd.”

In March, Nebraska state Sen. Bruce Bostelman, a conservative Republican, publicly apologized after repeating the claim during a televised debate on a bill to help school children who have behavioral problems.

“Schoolchildren dress up as animals — cats or dogs — during the school day; they meow, and they bark,” he said. “And now schools are wanting to put litter boxes in the schools for these children to use. How is this sanitary?”

“It was just something I felt that if this really was happening, we needed to address it and address it quickly,” Bostelman told The Associated Press.

In Michigan, the co-chairman of the state Republican Party co-chair Meshawn Maddock shared the December 2021 Midland school board meeting video with the following description, “Kids who identify as ‘furries’ get a litter box in the school bathroom. Parent heroes will TAKE BACK our schools.”

Rumors about litter boxes have persisted on social media as well. In January, a woman claimed in a widely shared TikTok video that she was fired for not meowing back at a student who identified as a cat.

The Poynter Institute’s PolitiFact, Tegna broadcasting-owned Verfiy, Snopes and other fact-checking sites have debunked the stories, but the new school year brought a fresh round of complaints.

Among those targeted are Salem-Keier Public Schools in Oregon, which in February introduced policies aimed at improving the “safety, wellbeing, education and success” of transgender or nonbinary students, the Statesman Journal reported.

Those policies include one that states students, staff and visitors may use the restroom aligning with their gender identity. Another requires the school to ensure that gender-neutral, single-occupant restrooms are accessible to anyone.

None of them contain litter boxes.

“Sprague High School, or any Salem-Keizer school, do not have litter boxes for use as restroom facilities,” Emily Hicks, a spokeswoman for the district, told the Statesman Journal. “This is a rumor that has been circulating nationally, and more recently in our community, and is simply just that, a rumor, and is not in any way accurate.

“Restroom facilities are available at all district facilities in compliance with state law,” she said.