It started with trans kids in schools.
Back in my day, that wasn’t an issue. Most kids didn’t even come out as gay until college, though it sometimes happened earlier, but no one came out as trans and then expected the school to conform to them.
Absolutely no one would have tried to make school officials give them special treatment because they identified as their family’s golden retriever.
For some time now, we’ve had unconfirmed reports of people getting special treatment because they identified as animals, but it was usually one of those “my sister’s friend’s kid knows this kid who has a cat bed in class at such-and-suck high school.”
Yet that’s not the case anymore. In the Salt Lake City area, there’s a whole thing going on involving kids who identify as animals and how the administration is reportedly shielding them. How do we know?
Because the other kids are protesting it.
In recent years there has been a lot of controversy about just how far schools have gone to accommodate so-called "furries" in the schools. There have been rumors of litterboxes in bathrooms and similar idiocies, but they have always been denied.
Given how "too good to check" these stories have been, I have refrained from writing about them. Photos or it didn't happen.
But nothing says "something has gone very wrong" like students complaining that things have gotten TOO weird. Students have been indoctrinated to tolerate almost any sort of ridiculous behavior, so when they get fed up we should probably listen.
School officials deny there is a problem, but they are even more indoctrinated than students. They are all about tolerating anything as long as it can be described as seriously mentally ill by normal people. If someone isn't mentally ill they will work diligently to get them there.
Students who walked out expressed some of their grievances, even calling for the expulsion and banning of the furries. When Bartholomew asked if their parents knew they were out protesting, the students answered with a resounding “yes.”
Several children can be seen holding signs reading, “Compelled speech is not free speech.” Another was holding a sign that said “I will not comply,” and another sign said “We just wanted to learn.”
The students said there are attacks from the furries every day, but were unsure of how many furries there actually are at the school, shouting out numbers ranging from five to 100 students who identify as such.
The school’s “furry” population is accused of biting, scratching, spraying air freshener on, barking at and chasing other students.
We know videos like this are shown in schools, so I am inclined to believe the kids. Cartoons encouraging kids to change their species are a thing, so is it implausible that tolerating what is actively encouraged a stretch?
The school denies this, of course.
The thing is, these are students reporting specific behavior that they, themselves, have seen or experienced firsthand. This is not those unconfirmed third- or fourth-hand reports that we can never quite track down.
As such, I’m far more inclined to believe this, especially in light of some of what we have seen from public schools lately.
The ironic thing is that a lot of furries really don’t appreciate being lumped into this camp. They know they’re not animals, they just like dressing up as animals for some reason. They might have a weird fetish—not all do, apparently. Many do it for fun but have no sexual interest attached to it.—but they want to keep it between consenting adults and they know they’re not really a cat girl or something.
These kids reportedly act like animals and get protected by the school. Nothing about that is right.
A long time ago, these people called themselves “otherkin” and wouldn’t confine themselves to being just cats or dogs but would “identify” as unicorns or dragons. So, I figured I’d identify as an M1A2 Abrams main battle tank. If they could identify as something that doesn’t exist, I could identify as something that does.
But I’ve never pretended I could just run over “crunchies” who get in my way. That’s because I’m not pathologically insane.
To the extent that this stuff is happening, it’s either that pathological insanity or it’s kids who are trying to use “tolerance” to get away with stuff they know they’d never be allowed to get away with otherwise.
The adults in the school systems need to start stepping up and being the adults. Kids can pretend all they want in the right contexts, but they don’t get to attack others because they want people to really think they’re a poodle or a mountain lion. No one is buying it.
OK, the school officials might, so I should phrase that as “No one with functional brain cells is buying it.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story said this happened in Salt Lake City. It has been corrected to note that it’s in the area around Salt Lake City, as opposed to the city itself.
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"or it’s kids who are trying to use “tolerance” to get away with stuff they know they’d never be allowed to get away with otherwise.".
I thought of that and I also thought that it might be mockery about the "you must tolerate anything" movement.
This was in Payson, UT, which is about 60 miles south of Salt Lake. It's pretty much the most southern town in the "Ogden to Salt Lake to Provo" urban corridor along the Wasatch Front, and is generally considered to be the start of "rural Utah" as you head south to Vegas.
Gah, clicked to soon. Edit to add: This is in Utah county, where R voter registration enjoys a 3:1 advantage over D. This "tolerance of all things" seems to be the D's method of infiltrating the schools in order to groom the kids.