A school in Australia allowed one of its students to be non-verbal in class and to behave like a cat, according to her wishes.
The unnamed teenager, who is in Year 8, would be allowed to act feline and be non-verbal at private school in Melbourne as long as it did not become a distraction to other classmates.
The teenager identifies as a cat and wants to be treated as such.
According to the Herald Sun, the school, which called the girl “phenomenal brilliant”, said some of its students had a range of identity and mental health issues.
“Our approach is always unique to the student and we will consider professional advice and the well-being of the student,” the school statement said, adding that they seek professional advice and listen to the well-being. of their students.
An insider close to the girl’s family also told the Herald Sun that there is no specific protocol for students who identify as animals.
“Nobody seems to have a protocol for students to identify as animals, but the approach has been that if it doesn’t disrupt the school, everyone sticks together.”
Despite support from the girl’s school and family, an Australian senator has hit out at Melbourne’s private school for encouraging a teenage girl to identify as a cat.
Ralph Babet, a member of the United Australia Party, claimed the story is a symptom of the rampant and “unchecked” “radical left” in society.
On his Facebook page, according to the Daily Mail, Senator Babet demanded an end to “woke” politics, directly calling out the teenager and the school in his dignified statement.
“Can we just put an end to this garbage right now. You go to school to learn to read, write and count,” he wrote. “You are not a cat. You are a little girl. The end.”
Previously, a school in Brisbane experienced the same incident after four female students allegedly got into the habit of crawling and poking holes in their uniforms to make room for their tails. Girls were believed to identify as either foxes or cats.
The claims, which have been denied by the school, made by a parent alleged that one of the girls had yelled at another pupil for “sitting on his tail”.
“When a girl went to sit at a free desk, another girl yelled at her and said she was sitting on his cock; there is a slit in this child’s uniform where apparently tail,” a parent told the Courier Mail.
Reports of individuals claiming to be “furs”, which is a subculture of people who identify as animals, sometimes dressing up in costumes and wearing tails, have also occurred in schools in the United States.
In January 2022, a Michigan school was forced to deny it was providing litter boxes to students who identify as ‘furs’, after a woman made the initial claim at a board meeting school the previous month.
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Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues and current affairs. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter.