Vanessa Abrahamson Blog: The GOP nominee accused 30 schools of admitting furries. The schools are calling them out.

Wednesday, October 5, 2022

The GOP nominee accused 30 schools of admitting furries. The schools are calling them out.

Heidi GänahlPhoto: Screenshot

At least nine public school districts in Colorado have refuted claims made by Republican nominee for governor Heidi Ganahl. Educators accused of accommodating students to furries who identify as cats and dogs.

Two nationwide education organizations have also condemned Ganahl’s claims as “tiring” and “incredibly frustrating,” saying they disrupt learning and burden teachers who are already overworked.

In a radio interview last week, Ganahl said that “schools tolerate” students “identifying as cats.” She said in a recent debate with incumbent gay governor Jared Polis (D) that she has received over 100 messages from parents “from all over Colorado” mentioning the problem in their schools.

Her campaign also published a list of 30 schools that allegedly had such problems, although the list did not include details of the incidents themselves. The Denver Post reported.

The list was compiled in part by Jeffco Kids First, a local group that has spoken out against distance learning during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The group is part of the so-called “parent coalition” behind Ganahl’s campaign. Jeffco co-founder Lindsay Datko did not respond to the above publication’s questions about the list.

“As a gubernatorial candidate, but more than anything as a parent, I worry that distractions like kids dressing up in school will distract from the reality that 60 percent of our kids aren’t doing at grade level,” Ganahl said. “It is tragic that we are abandoning our children. We have to make them our priority.”

But officials from Aurora, Boulder Valley, Cherry Creek, Colorado Springs, Denver, Douglas County, Jefferson County, Mesa County Valley and Weld County school districts all said post that such incidents have never happened in their schools. District officials pointed to the school’s dress code and other policies that prohibit such behavior outright. Several schools have called their claims “unsubstantiated” and said there is “absolutely no truth” to them.

Additionally, both the Colorado Association of School Executives and the Colorado Education Association called Ganahl’s claims false and stated that no educators, administrators, or districts reported anything relevant.

Bret Miles, executive director of the Colorado Association of School Executives, added: “This vicious rumor – how many times has it been debunked? Now it’s out there again, in our governor’s race… School districts spend a lot of time chasing storylines that serve purely political gain. They have nothing to do with what children experience at school and it is shock and awe. It’s just incredibly frustrating.”

Miles said teachers are focused on making up for lost schooling during the COVID-19 shutdown and the false claims are just one of many reasons teachers are wondering if they want to continue working in public education. “The politicization of school life and the day-to-day running of a school is high on the list of reasons people wonder why they want to be in this profession,” he said.

“Furries” are a subculture of people who dress up as animals (usually in mascot costumes). Increasingly, far-right extremists are using the term for anyone who dresses up like an animal or pretends to behave like one.

Various conservatives have repeatedly peddled lies about schools recognizing furries as a gender identity, but fact-checkers and school districts have repeatedly debunked such stories as hoaxes. In reality, such stories are intended to bias people against transgender individuals and against transgender-inclusive school policies, as they mock the notion of living as an authentic self.

Numerous right-wing and Republican candidates across the country have repeated similar claims about student furries forcing school districts to debunk them as untrue.

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