Stories about schools and teachers purportedly supporting children self-identifying as cats are now circulating in the UK. These started in the USA as part of a right wing faux-rage campaign to undermine trans students and to create ‘woke’ outrage to sti their supporters.
The most recent outing for this tired old fabrication was in The Telegraph last week. Their story was that a teacher criticized a student for mocking another student for identifying as a cat. There is no evidence that this happened. The recording that is the centre of this story does not contain the alleged exchange.
https://mol.im/a/12209919#v-3158979199302324091
The whole story is filled with vagueness. Not surprisingly no names are provided. The school has no evidence that any students identify as cats. An anonymous person has posed as the child’s mother to stoke the outrage in follow up stories.
A similar story regarding Banff Academy in Aberdeenshire was later found to be false.
This type of story started in the USA where outraged commentators invented stories about schools having litter trays for students who identify as cats. The purpose of these stories is to ridicule the Idea of self-identitying, and create a toxic environment for gender identification. There never were any schools with litter trays, however the idea has probably stuck in the minds of their followers.
These stories are aimed at mocking the idea of self-identitication and to undermine trans people. There is also a popular trope of schools being hotbeds of wokery and that the right is here to save the world. Of course any halfway competent journalist would be aware of all this and would take this into account
Real world consequences
The trust that runs Rye College has put out a statement that “clarify that no children at Rye College identifies as a cat or any other animal”.
The Education Secretary has asked for an investigation with the South-east regional director Dame Kate Dethridge being sent into Rye College. This will of course create disruption and cost money.
How did this story end up in the news?
Was it a student who embellished what was going on in the classroom? Was it the mother enjoying a payout from a journalist who was not interested in delving into the facts? The only person who knows is Ewan Somerville of The Telegraph. He has been asked to clarify the story but has not responded.
Click-bait journalists join the fray
On 26th June the Daily Mail click-bait specialist Helen Carroll was touting on Twitter for any stories of children at school identitying as animals. She was heavily mocked with replies such as….
“My son identifies as a sloth selectively. Usually when his room needs tidying or I’ve asked him to unload the dishwasher. Feel free to DM”
“My child identifies as a plant if that’s close enough? They start nursery next week.”
“My wife identifies as a pillar of salt – it’s a lot”
“have you tried identifying as a serious journalist”
Her account is now locked so that only her followers can see her tweets.