Fact check: Do California schools have litter boxes for students identifying as ‘furries’?

Rumors that San Luis Obispo County school districts are placing litter boxes in restrooms to accommodate students who identify as “furries” are false, school district administrators say.

“It is utter nonsense,” said Eric Prater, superintendent of San Luis Coastal Unified School District.

“It is an unfounded allegation,” said Curt Dubost, superintendent of Paso Robles Joint Unified School District.

The administrators’ response came after the Paso Robles district received an allegation that the high school was receiving requests from students identifying as furries — someone who has an alternate animal persona — to have litter boxes provided in the restrooms, Dubost said. None of that is true, he added.

“We have had complaints about ‘Furrys’ (sic) in PRJUSD,” posted Paso Robles school board member Kenney Enney in the Facebook group PRotect Paso on Saturday. “They are not a protected class, so therefore if there are ‘Furry’ issues in your child’s school, and staff is not addressing it, please notify your your (sic) School Board Trustee.”

The district, however, has not had issues regarding students identifying as furries, nor has it had requests from students for litter boxes, Dubost said.

The Tribune also checked at Lucia Mar Unified and Atascadero Unified school districts — both of which said none of their restrooms have litter boxes nor have they had any complaints about furries in their schools.

According to the Poynter Institute, school districts around the nation have also needed to debunk claims that they are providing litter boxes in bathrooms.

Reuters noted in an Oct. 18 fact-check of the claims that the latest surfacing of the rumor appeared to originate from an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

“Joe Rogan told former U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard a story about litter boxes at an unidentified school,” Reuters reported. “However, there is no publicly available evidence that proves schools are providing litter boxes to self-identified ‘furries’ anywhere in the U.S.”

Reuters reported that “furries” are people who create their own alternative animal personalities known as a “fursonas,” according to the International Anthropomorphic Research Project, also known as Furscience, a group of interdisciplinary professors who have studied more than 40,000 furries.