this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
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A Texas bill, known as the FURRIES Act, would ban non-human behaviors in public schools, including the use of litter boxes and wearing animal accessories.

Rep. Stan Gerdes, the bill's author, claimed schools were providing litter boxes for students acting as "furries."

When pressed, Gerdes could not find an example. The bill was left pending in committee.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 52 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

We truly live in the dumbest timeline. Seems like ~50% of the population has no "bullshit filter".

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 weeks ago

They have an “actively seek out bullshit that props up my radical beliefs and hatreds” filter.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The litter box in schools thing happened in all of my dad's WhatsApp friends schools, but there's no pictures of it 🤔

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

I had an idiot teenager working for me who insisted it was happening at his school, but couldn't tell me which classroom or teacher was allowing it.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (29 children)

It started because of school shootings, ironically enough. If you’re in a lockdown for hours while the cops take their sweet time, (coughUvaldecough), there’s a near 100% chance that at least one of the children in your class is going to need to use the restroom during that time.

Luckily, camp toilets are a thing:

They’re basically a 5 gallon bucket with a snap-on toilet seat lid. You use a trash bag to line it, then sprinkle an alginate powder in, (the same powder used in diapers) and it turns into a gel when it gets wet. This helps avoid the smell and splashing, and a single small sachet of alginate powder is enough for the entire bucket.

As an added bonus, you can use the bucket to store other things that might be needed in a shooting or extended lockdown. Tourniquets, gauze, protein bars, etc… It’s all there in a single grab-and-go location. Lockdown starts, you pull the bucket out of the closet, dump all the supplies out, and set it in the corner for kids to use if they need to pee.

But this very quickly got flipped around, because conservatives didn’t want the left to start using “schools need toilets in the classrooms because school shootings are so frequent” campaigns. So they flipped it around, and said schools were providing litter boxes to furries. There’s also a heavy anti-trans lean on the litter boxes messaging, which just plays into the conservative fear mongering even more.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

If anyone wants the wikipedia article about this litter box in schools thing, here you go+

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

At no point I do I think bullying should be allowed in schools but the reality is that if a kid was demanding a litter box in which to relieve themselves, they would get ostracized, bullied into oblivion, and that behavior would stop right away. No legislation required. Humans have a way of self correcting themselves in group environments. It's an evolutionary trait from our days as tribes.

Again, bullying is a huge problem that needs to be taken far more seriously in our school systems... Buuuut, humans will act like humans, especially human children, when it comes down to things way outside the norm. Its just the way we are at this stage in evolution.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 weeks ago

bullying is a huge problem that needs to be taken far more seriously in our school systems

I fear the reason bullying isn't taken seriously in schools is because those in positions of power frequently use bully tactics to get there. Fascists and bullies are one and the same, and on some level, corrupt school administrators know that. School bullies provide useful extensions of fascist behavior, applied by peers to encourage conformity in environments where adults are absent. Why would fascists in charge ever want to stop that?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 weeks ago

Furries are notoriously stealthy, it's not like they walk around in bright furry colours or anything

[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Of course not. Like most of their "anti-woke" ideas, they are based on lofty ideas.

They do this to misdirect you from the real problems, those that they usually caused all by themselves.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

So countdown to Republicans planting furries in schools

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

There are probably hundreds of actual issues to dedicate time to, yet this is what he chooses to focus on?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

“The evil queers are coming after your kids!” goes next to “the migrants are gang members” as a way to keep the base in perpetual fear all of the time. Shrieking about something that doesn’t actually happen wastes the lefts time - because people who care about the truth have to take the time to debunk. Then the fuckers turn around and say - “look at you protecting pedophiles” when you debunk their insane shit.

The “big lie.”

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

The great part of tackling problems that aren't real is that nobody can see you haven't solved anything.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago

He's a Republican. All the real problems are literally beyond his comprehension.

[–] [email protected] 199 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

To be clear, cat litter buckets in classrooms is a real thing in some schools but only to use in active shooter lockdowns if needed. When a classroom of kids is trapped for hours, someone will need to poop, and they’re going to want to cover up it and not smell it the whole time. So unfortunately there’s a perfectly valid reason for kids to poop in litter buckets at schools that these conspiracists, who are probably the same nutjobs who think school shootings are fake, are twisting into furry accommodation.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago

Here I was laughing at a silly man trying to forbid something that never happens. Now I’m sad again. How on earth is this the lived reality of so many children? Can’t do much from over here in Europe but what the heck.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Slight misinfo here.

I was not able to find anyone selling or providing kitty litter buckets for active shooter response kits. I think kitty litter would not be an idea lchoice because it relies on absorbing moisture, swelling, and covering the feces via the cat's natural scraping behavior.

However, their are a number of classroom lockdown kits that do include a 5 gallon bucket to shit in, and a deodorizer tablet/solution.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago

It was a DIY solution, not a kit, but great to know the idea was monetized.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

Yup.

And they'll do this dumbass shit before addressing gun violence or police who hang out scrolling on their phones during school shootings instead of stopping them, every single time.

[–] [email protected] 192 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Hey, America, what the fuck?

[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 weeks ago

We're pretty stupid over here right now. Sorry, world.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 weeks ago

Tbh, kitty litter sounds like a practical idea in case of a lockdown. I was just cautioned to make sure my office trash bin doesn't have any cracks.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Uh... citation needed 🤦🏼‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

"The only known official instance of cat litter being placed in school classrooms for potential use by students was in the late 2010s by the Jefferson County Public School District in Colorado, where the 1999 Columbine High School massacre took place. Some teachers were given "go buckets" that contained cat litter to be used as a toilet in an emergency lockdown situation, such as during a school shooting.[4][43][44]" — Note: official instance. I’ve been told it was popular enough for someone to sell premade “go buckets”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litter_boxes_in_schools_hoax

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
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