The UK Prime Minister’s office said head teachers should step in to stop children from identifying themselves as moons, cats, or other “neo genders,” which includes “furries” as a gender identity.. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak .It is important teachers do not influence the students with their “personal views” of transgenderism, said a spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak..On Tuesday, an official spokesperson for Sunak responded to a story reported by the Daily Telegraph. .The story involved a Year 8 student, typically an 11 or 12-year-old, who was labelled as “despicable” by their teacher for disagreeing that another student could identify as a cat..British schools permitted students to identify as dinosaurs, horses, and even moons. .There was an incident between a teacher and student at Rye College in East Sussex, who was labelled as “despicable” by their teacher for saying “if you have a vagina you’re a girl and if you have a penis you’re a boy.”.The spokesperson said it's important for teachers not to use “contested opinions as facts” and told head teachers to step in when necessary..“It would not be right to comment on the actions of a specific individual or a specific school without knowing the full details, but we understand why these reports will be concerning for parents,” said Sunak’s spokesperson..“In broad terms, teachers have a responsibility to encourage their students to engage respectfully with those they disagree with. They should also not be teaching contested opinions as fact, shutting down valid discussions and debates.”.“It’s important parents and carers are reassured that children aren’t being influenced by personal views of those teaching them,” said Sunak’s spokesperson..“Any example that strays from this would be wrong and we would expect head teachers to act.”.The transgender guidance for schools from the UK Government will be released later this week. However, it will not incorporate guidelines regarding “furries,” which are children identifying as animals, despite educators pushing for “furries” to be a protected sexual minority group..“Teachers should be dealing with this under existing safeguarding frameworks,” said Tracey Shaw of the Safe Schools Alliance (SSA)..“If a child is coming to school identifying as a cat or a horse, that should immediately raise red flags.”.“The teacher should be asking themselves, what are these children looking at online? What forums are they on? What is going on in the home? What is happening in that child’s life and who else is involved?” said Shaw..“The problem is teachers have a blind spot where anything involving identity comes in because they are frightened of doing the wrong thing. They think they are being kind by affirming these behaviours, but they are not being kind, because they are likely to be missing all sorts of things that are going on in that child’s life.”.The Safer Schools Organization (SSO), different from the SSA, provided guidance to parents and teachers that “The furry community itself is a complex one, made up of many different identities and definitions of what it means to be a ‘furry.’” .The SSO advises parents and teachers to “engage in conversation about what they think it means to be a ‘furry’ and what they see as the benefits.” .According to the Daily Telegraph's report on Tuesday, students nationwide have been allowed to use “neo pronouns” that refer to objects or animals instead of traditional gender pronouns of male and female..Students can choose pronouns such as “moonself” or “catself” or even identify as horses..The Daily Telegraph has a recording of an argument between a teacher and a student about whether a classmate can identify as a cat..In response to a female student's objection, the teacher told her that “questioning their identity” of a classmate can “really upset someone.”.“If they want to identify as a cat or something then they are genuinely unwell, crazy,” the female student told the teacher..The teacher told the female student that “if you don’t like it, you need to go to a different school” and “I’m reporting you to [senior staff], you need to have a proper educational conversation about equality, diversity and inclusion because I’m not having that expressed in my lesson.”.Rye College is “reviewing our processes and working with the relevant individuals to ensure such events do not take place in the future.”
