The litter boxes in schools hoax was an urban legend spread in 2021 and 2022 that schools were installing litter boxes in bathrooms to be used by students who "identify as cats" or with the furry or otherkin subculture. The belief in and spread of the hoax has been described as "furry panic". Various right-wing and anti-LGBTQ sources circulated these claims as part of a moral panic against school accommodations for transgender youth, such as unisex toilets. Ahead of the 2022 US elections, the hoax was promoted by Republican politicians Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Scott Jensen, Heidi Ganahl, Don Bolduc, and media personalities Joe Rogan, Chaya Raichik, and Bill Cunningham. Parents of school-aged children also circulated the rumors on social media apps like Facebook.
Different iterations named dozens of different schools and districts throughout the US and Canada. Officials have routinely debunked such claims, and there is no evidence that any school has ever held such a policy.
Background
Furries are a subculture interested in anthropomorphic animal characters, with fandom members frequently often interacting with others through online roleplay, art, conventions and cosplay. Many view the fandom solely as a hobby, and do not identify as or perceive themselves to be animals. Those that do may identify as otherkin. While the fandom is popularly perceived as such, it is not innately sexual or fetishistic. LGBTQ+ identity is substantially over-represented among furries compared to the general population.
According to Utah State University folklorist Lynn McNeill, urban legends and jokes about furries using litter boxes date back to at least the early 2000s. Sharon Roberts, a faculty member at Renison University College and co-founder of a furry research group called Furscience, had not, in a decade of researching furry conventions, encountered any instances of furries using litter boxes.
School boards in the late 2010s and early 2020s saw heightened controversy (described by some as a moral panic or culture war) regarding accommodations for transgender students, such as unisex restrooms, and allowing them to use bathrooms and participate on sports teams corresponding to their genders. High rates of suicide and suicidal ideation among transgender youth were also cause for concern. In 2022, parental rights groups across the U.S. made a concerted push to ban books discussing race, gender, and sexuality from schools and public libraries.
In 2016, American radio show host Michael L. Brown wrote an opinion piece in The Christian Post opposing to transgender accommodations and gender-affirming procedures, stating, "if we don't stop this downward slide, we might soon be required to provide litter boxes for people who identify as cats". Some conservative politicians and alt-right media commentators had used false litter box rumors to generate alarm about what accommodations for LGBTQ+ students might lead to, and have falsely accused LGBTQ-inclusive educators of "child grooming".
Throughout 2021 and 2022, online rumors of students dressing and acting like cats circulated, spurred on by prank videos. Rumors sparked public outcry and calls for administrative action from concerned parents, with a school board in Statesville, North Carolina proposing a formal ban on animal costumes. In August 2021, a high school in Meade County, Kentucky said that a small number of students had violated their existing dress code. There was no evidence, however, that any schools had provided litter boxes in restrooms to any students.
The only known official instance of cat litter being placed in school classrooms for potential use by students was in the late 2010s by the Jefferson County Public School District in Colorado, where the 1999 Columbine High School massacre took place. Some teachers were given "go buckets" that contained cat litter to be used as a toilet in an emergency lockdown situation, such as during a school shooting.
Timeline Canada Unsubstantiated rumors surfaced in Prince Edward Island in October 2021. After the rumors spread widely in schools and on social media, the Public Schools Branch denied claims of litter boxes, with district director Norbert Carpenter saying "It seemed to me like it was a backlash against some of the progressive things that our schools are doing, and we would have many that would say this is rooted in hate".
As the hoax spread widely in the United States and garnered media attention, online rumors spread to several other Canadian provinces and schools. In September 2022, Durham District School Board in Ontario denied rumors and said they "may be rooted in transphobia and homophobia with the intent to diminish and trivialize gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation and cause harm to students and staff who identify as 2SLGBTQI". In October 2022, in response to a letter that was sent to local media, administrators for the Renfrew County District School Board or Renfrew County Catholic District School Board in Ontario issued statements that their schools "do not have, and have never had, litter boxes in any of our elementary or secondary sites". A school official said there was a request for cat litter in one school, but it was denied by the school board and that they did not recognize animal identities. The same month, the education director of the Lambton-Kent District School Board dispelled litter box rumors.
By November 2022, school officials for several other Canadian provinces released statements refuting rumors that litter boxes were being provided in schools.
United States
In December 2021, conservative activist Lisa Hansen in Michigan gave public testimony before the Midland Public Schools school board as it discussed COVID-19 testing requirements for students, claiming she was informed that litter boxes had been added in bathrooms for students who "identify as cats", along with claiming that it was a "nationwide" issue and that there was an "agenda that is being pushed". The rumors later gained traction in January 2022, after a video of the school board meeting was shared by Meshawn Maddock, the co-chair for the Michigan Republican Party, who promoted the rumors. The video was also shared by Libs of TikTok, a politically influential right-wing Twitter account of Chaya Raichik with several hundred-thousand followers. The superintendent for the school district of Midland Public Schools described the claims as false, stating "There is no truth whatsoever to this false statement [...] There have never been litter boxes within MPS schools".
In January 2022, Michelle Evans, a Texan Republican running for Congress, claimed that cafeteria tables were "being lowered in certain Round Rock Independent School District middle and high schools to allow 'furries' to more easily eat without utensils or their hands". The school district denied the claims.
In February 2022, the Carroll Community School District in Iowa was accused of providing litter boxes for those who identified as cats. The district's superintendent denied this claim, stating "Staff members are not encouraging or accommodating anyone behaving or identifying as a cat or any other animal".
In March 2022, a conservative commentator promoted claims that the Waunakee School District in Wisconsin had a "furry protocol" specifying the rules for furries, including being "allowed to dress in their choice of furry costumes" and "choose not to run in gym class but instead sit at the feet of their teacher and lick their paws". Reuters fact-checked the claim, stating there was no evidence for it; the school district also denied the claim. Joe Seiwert, a Kansas state representative, made a false claim during a public forum. In North Dakota, Fargo School Board member Jennifer Benson said litter boxes had been placed in school restrooms, but she declined to present evidence of it when requested by local media, and school officials in Fargo and elsewhere in North Dakota said the claim was the result of false rumors being spread nationally. Despite several rumors in the Midwest being debunked, rumors circulated on internet forums in Cache Valley, Utah, about litter boxes being placed in Sky View High School, which schools officials could not corroborate.
In April 2022, a satirical post of a fake email went viral, claiming that Kokomo High School in Indiana was allowing students identifying as animals to have "special accommodations and certain privileges", including litter boxes in bathrooms. The Associated Press reported that the post was shared more than 10,000 times. The school's principal confirmed the post was fake. In New York, administrators for Dansville Central School refuted litter box rumors after an Instagram post received thousands of views. Later in the same month, two Republican lawmakers in the Minnesota House of Representatives, Steve Drazkowski and Tim Miller, repeated debunked stories about schools providing litter boxes in a debate about a statewide student survey. School board candidates in Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Dakota also made unverified claims about litter boxes being provided in schools.
In March 2022, during a televised debate on a bill in the Nebraska legislature, the Republican state senator Bruce Bostelman claimed that "schools are wanting to put litter boxes in the schools" for students who were furries. A few hours after, the state senator retracted his claim and apologized, having gained backlash online. In Iowa, Republican state senator Tim Kraayenbrink said at a public forum that schools were putting litter boxes in schools for furries to use. He later said that he had not verified the claim was true prior to sharing it. By that same month, local school officials in Maine and Vermont had also dispelled litter box rumors.
In June 2022, social media posts in Hannibal, Missouri, falsely claimed that the school district there was placing water bowls and cat litter boxes in school restrooms and that the issue would be discussed at an upcoming board meeting. In response, the superintendent of the school board visited every bathroom in the district, and verified at the meeting that the rumors were false.
In July 2022, administrators for Meade School District in South Dakota clarified in response to rumors that litter boxes would not be provided to students who self-identify as animals in response to rumors. In Maine, Republican Congressional candidate Ed Thelander repeated the hoax in an interview for a far-right website. When a clip of the interview circulated widely in the media in October, Thelander said, "I don't believe it now", and that he was unable to corroborate the rumors he had heard from others.
In August 2022, rumors of litter boxes were directed at two high schools in South Carolina. Administrators for Horry County Schools said the rumors were part of a nationwide hoax and untrue.