Republican politician apologises for demanding investigation into 'furries' in schools

A Nebraska senator has apologised after falling for false reports that children were identifying as “furries” and defecating in classrooms.

Bruce Bostelman, a Republican, made the remarks in the US state’s senate on Monday, in which he shared something which has left him “a little shocked”.

“It’s something called furries,” he said. “If you don’t know what furries are, it’s where school children dress up as animals – cats or dogs – during the school day.

“They meow and they bark and they interact with their school [and] with their teachers in this fashion. Now schools are wanting to put litter boxes in the schools for these children to use.

“How is this sanitary?

“This is something I think, ‘how can schools allow this to happen’? I think it’s very disruptive within the school system. I think it’s very disruptive to the learning process.”

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Mr Bostelman then went on to cite an example of this apparent phenomenon, claiming a student “identified as a cat” and wanted a litterbox.

When this wasn’t provided by the school, they defecated on the floor - the politician claimed.

He added: “What is going on? Some kids can’t wear an American flag and walk through the school in their shirt, and you keep them out of school? But then it’s okay if they wear a cat costume?”

Associated Press reported the rumour circulated in a private Facebook group titled “Protect Nebraska Children’, while one superintendent in Iowa was forced to tell parents that similar claims in the state were “simply and emphatically not true”.

When footage of Mr Bostelman’s unfounded claims were shared to Twitter, people were unforgiving in their mockery of the lawmaker:

After being ridiculed online – and actually doing what he probably should have done in the first place and ringing some schools – Mr Bostelman said they assured him “none of that happened”.

The senator had also reached out to Democrat Lynne Walz, chair of the Nebraska legislator’s Education Committee to confirm the claims.

He said: “It was just something I felt that if this really was happening, we needed to address it and address it quickly.”

So much for fact-checking in the fast-moving world of politics, eh, Mr Bostelman?

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.