It’s certainly some kind of sign of the times. What it says about these times is another question.
Renfrew County’s two main school boards issued a statement Tuesday to affirm that they do not provide litter boxes for students in any of their schools.
The Renfrew County District School Board and Renfrew County Catholic District School Board said that is has “come to our attention that misinformation is currently circulating in our school communities and online regarding the presence of litter boxes in our schools.”
“Please know that (the RCDSB and RCCDSB) do not have, and have never had, litter boxes in any of our elementary or secondary sites.”
Further, the boards said, a provincially mandated collection of “demographic data” in the two school boards includes “questions of identity… specific to gender.”
“We do not collect any data regarding animal identity, and we do not recognize such identities.
“The RCDSB and the RCCDSB recognizes, values, accepts and nurtures all students and staff regardless of their gender identity or expression.”
Comments that at least one school in Renfrew County had a litter box in its washrooms began circulating after a letter to the editor published in the Eganville Leader suggested that the author had a “confirmed report from a high up school board official” that seven children in the county’s public school system identify as “animals.”
The letter said it “has been confirmed” that one student in a public school identifies as a “frog,” while another school provided a litter box for a student who identifies as a cat.
According to Wikipedia, the “litter boxes in schools hoax” is an urban myth that has been “promoted by various conservative and far-right media outlets and personalities,” stating that some schools were providing litter boxes in bathrooms to students who identified as cats or “furries,” in response to several school districts enacting protections for transgender students.
The unfounded rumours were reported in Prince Edward Island in October 2021, and were “initially thought to be a joke, but had to be formally disavowed as misinformation circulated on social media.”
“Rumors spread to other Canadian provinces and schools. In the United States, popular media coverage of the hoax originally revolved around a school in Michigan in December 2021, but spread to schools in several other states.”
- For more local news, pick up a copy of this week’s NRT. To get the NRT delivered directly to your mail box or inbox each week, subscribe here.
