(Center Square) – State Sen. Stangerdez, R-Smithville, introduced the fur law (a prohibited and illegal expression of role-playing in education) on Thursday, banning Texas public schools from allowing furry subcultures to act on classrooms and campuses. Furry subcultures include individuals who often wear costumes to employ anthropomorphic animal identities that attempt to mimic the animal’s behavior.
“We don’t believe we have to do this, but we cannot allow distractions of these types of role-playing to affect students trying to learn, teachers and administrators trying to teach,” Gerdes said in a statement. “We need to protect this nonsense from schools.
“There’s no distraction, there’s no theater, there’s just education,” he said. “While school mascots, theater performances and dress-up days will remain part of the school’s spirit, the bill ensures that students and teachers can focus on academics rather than strange and unhealthy confusion. Texas schools educate their children, not indulging in fundamental trends.”
Gov. Governor Greg Abbott expressed his support for the bill at a Texas Pastor’s Council event in Austin on Thursday. “In some small rural areas and school districts,” he said public schools deal with fur. “Kids go to schools dressed like cats with trash cans,” which became a lot of trouble, and Geldes introduced the bill, saying, “They say they don’t have fur in Texas public schools.”
“Your child expects to learn the fundamentals of education: reading and writing, mathematics and science,” Abbott continued, arguing for the need for school choices in Texas. The Texas Senate has already passed a school selection bill. The House of Representatives will hold a hearing Tuesday, and it is expected to pass and make history, Abbott said.
If children are “distracted by fur, parents have the right to move their child to their chosen school,” Abbott said. “I’ve never told you anything other than just common sense, but it’s very difficult to deal with common sense in this setting.”
The LGBTQ Nation criticized the bill, claiming that “anti-transgender Republicans” would “punish students who behave like non-human animals in schools.” The Houston Chronicle claimed that Abbott “revives a revival that revived rumors that public schools were putting trash cans in classrooms for students dressed cats.” Some news reports contradict this claim.
Geldes says he introduced the bill in response to concerns expressed by his members. A furry incident occurred at Smithville ISD, and the director confirmed it, he said.
“We fully expect subculture to appear in a complete furry vengeance at the committee hearing,” Geldes said. But “they don’t get a trash can at the Texas Capitol. They need to use regular toilets like humans.”
The bill amends Texas education norms to “prohibit non-human behavior by students, including introducing themselves as non-human on days other than exemption dates.” Exemption dates include holidays like Halloween.
Non-human behavior is defined as “activity or accessories normally displayed by homeless members of the Sapiens species, such as the use of a trash can to pass through feces, urine, or other human by-products.” Individuals wearing “tails, chains, colours and other accessories designed for pets” including Fur. “Not human speech, not licking yourself or others for grooming or maintenance purposes, bare, cries, hissing, or other animal noises” are also prohibited.
The bill directs the Law Board to adopt a student code of conduct and penalties for violations, such as removal, suspension, disciplinary alternative education programs, or expulsion, and specifies the terms of the penalty, according to the bill’s language.
We also modify the Texas Family Code to define a child’s mental or emotional injury to include in an educational setting, or encouragement, so that the child can develop a dependency or belief in social acceptance. It defines that it is persuasive or encouraged to engage in sexual acts such as mental and emotional injury, physical injury, sexual acts that are harmful to the child’s mental, emotional or physical welfare, human trafficking, prostitution, child pornography, use of controlled substances, child marriage, or other acts.
This allows citizens to file a complaint with the Attorney General’s office and allow them to file a Mandom warrant requesting compliance with the law.
The criminal element is included as a furry crime involving children and has been charged in other states. A Sun Valley, California man was convicted of three murders after becoming obsessed with a teenager involved in a furry subculture. The furry member was charged with murder and attempted murder in Portland, Oregon. A Pennsylvanian man was charged with raping an 8-year-old boy who dressed an animal at a furry party.
The UK-based Safer Schools Ecosystem warns that an online furry platform creates the potential for sexual exploitation of children.
