'Private school problem?' – Reports of furry behaviour mostly tied to independent schools
02:44 Share

Last week on the program, we did look at this issue of kids who describe themselves as furries in schools. So you've never heard about this phenomenon. It's children. Actually, some adults do it as well. But the issue is what's happening in classrooms. They dress up as cats and dogs and other furry animals. And then in the classroom, they then display the behaviours of that particular animal. So if they are a dog, they will woof. If they are a cat...

They'll meow. If they are a cow, they'll moo. I don't know if we have any cows. We haven't had reports of cows in the classrooms. But it's got to the point where some of the schools are actually effectively catering for this. Now, our social media posts have had a combined two million hits on this in the past week or so, which is astonishing. And we have dozens and dozens of comments. And I've heard countless stories now reading these comments saying,

about teachers actually allowing, for instance, litter trays to be set up in the corner of a classroom. So where does the Education Department stand on this? Well, we've been in contact with the New South Wales Education Department and the Education Minister's Office. And the Minister's Office tells us, well, no, the rules are actually clear when it comes to public schools that you must wear a uniform in the public school

The Minister's office says we are in the business of educating kids and they don't have any evidence that this sort of furry behaviour is happening in public school classrooms. Now looking at the list of schools that we've had a look at, mostly it appears to be independent schools of some nature, including Catholic schools. So we've been in contact with the Catholic Education Department today. Now they've given us a formal statement, they don't want to come on the radio at the moment.

But the Catholic Education Department says Catholic education puts a high emphasis on student behaviours that support a quality learning environment for our students. That includes the importance of uniforms. The pastoral wellbeing of our schools is a strength of the Catholic education. Furries are not recognised by Catholic teaching. But that doesn't mean they're not sitting in a classroom and being allowed to lick themselves if they're a little bit dirty or eat out of a bowl.

or relieve themselves in a litter tray. So we still need some more details from the Catholic Education Department about, yes, they insist on uniforms, but do they allow furries to actually conduct themselves like an animal in the classroom? We've also put these questions to the Association of Independent Schools. They're yet to get back to us. If you have information, particularly if this is happening in public schools, we'd like to hear from you.

because the evidence so far is mostly this is happening in non-public schools. Send me an email. The email address, 2GB.com.