A popular Aussie ‘mum-fluencer’ has gone viral after claiming that male public school students had been gaining access to female bathrooms by identifying as ‘furries’.
The TikTok star, who goes by both ‘natuhleei_xo’ and ‘SelfLoveMumma’ on social media, said a relative of hers brought the issue to her attention.
Her relative, a public high school student, claimed there were up to 15 furries in his unnamed school, whose fursonas were known and accommodated by their teachers.
Furries dress up and behave like their chosen animal, or their ‘fursona’, and form communities based on this shared interest.
The mother said on TikTok that, according to her young relative, the furries would ‘hiss and purr’ in class, ‘they’ll growl at you if you try to talk to them’ and sometimes they would refuse to give any other response.
‘They’ll talk to the teachers, however, most of the time they’re just crawling around [on] the floor and the teachers are fine with it.
‘What really got me was, he said at lunchtime, he has seen male children, furries, crawling into the girls toilets.
‘Surely, that is not acceptable.’
The Aussie ‘mum-fluencer’ garnered over a thousand likes for her impassioned ‘furry’ rant
The influencer said, if the claim was accurate, there appeared to be two sets of rules.
‘If a straight boy was to go into a female’s toilet, and there [were] young girls in there, he would get in trouble for that, right?
‘So, why is it OK that these ”cats” and ”dogs” are allowed to do this?’
Viewers of the video were quick to relate to the influencer’s concerns, with some claiming they had direct experience of furry students.
‘As a teacher’s aide myself, for many of these students, whether we agree with the behaviour or not, we’re given instructions to allow this behaviour,’ one user claimed.
‘Many of these issues are coddled by higher-ups in the school’s administration. It’s definitely not right, though.
‘As far as privacy and toilets go, there should be no special privileges for things like this.’
Claims of furry schoolkids and even teachers are hardly new, either in Australia or overseas.
While school parents have often sounded the ‘furry’ alarm bell, investigations have repeatedly failed to verify many of the claims (stock)
Earlier this month, a Brisbane school investigated a teacher accused of wearing cat ears, walking on all fours and hissing at students.
Images published by the Courier Mail purport to show the Marsden State High School teacher wearing cat ears and a lanyard reading: ‘Purr’.
The school was unable to find any evidence corroborating the claims.
Even though the story caused a social media storm, the claims were relatively mundane by recent standards.
Last year, for example, the Queensland Department of Education was forced to debunk allegations a Cairns school had installed a litter tray for cat-identifying students.
Similar claims have been made in recent years in countries across the world, including the US, the UK, New Zealand and Canada.
In 2022, NBC News reported that at least 20 Republican candidates and elected officials had invoked false claims concerning litter boxes in schools that year.
Every school district mentioned by those politicians has since refuted the allegations, the outlet said.
An investigation into ‘Miss Purr’ at Marsden State High School was unable to find evidence the teacher had ‘hissed’ at students
Apart from debate over whether the trend is, in fact, real at all, much of the controversy comes down to differences of opinion regarding whether furry fandom is a fetish.
‘Can someone please correct me if I’m wrong but these furries were originally a [sex] thing, I thought?’ one user said.
Global furry research group, Furscience, said the fandom is not ‘simply a fetish’.
‘The most-cited draw to the furry fandom is its sense of belongingness, recreation and escape from the mundaneness of daily life,’ its website reads.
Research shows that furries are significantly more likely to have experienced physical bullying during adolescence and tend to keep their furry interests to themselves.
‘Most furries represent themselves and interact with the fandom using fursonas that represent idealized versions of themselves—usually more outgoing, sociable, extraverted and confident than themselves,’ Furscience said.
‘Our research suggests that to the extent that furries identify with these idealized versions of themselves, they experience greater self-esteem and life satisfaction.’
A Queensland Department of Education spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia the department had not ‘received any reports regarding students identifying as ‘furries’ or schools making central provisions for them’.
‘This is not an issue that has been raised centrally.’
