By GRANT SCHULTE | The Related Press
LINCOLN, Neb. — A Nebraska state lawmaker apologized on Monday after he publicly cited a persistent however debunked rumor alleging that faculties are putting litter containers at school loos to accommodate youngsters who self-identify as cats.
Sen. Bruce Bostelman, a conservative Republican, repeated the false declare throughout a public, televised debate on a invoice supposed to assist faculty youngsters who've behavioral issues. His feedback shortly went viral, with one Twitter video garnering greater than 300,000 views as of Monday afternoon, and drew an onslaught of on-line criticism and mock.
Bostelman initially mentioned he was “shocked” when he heard tales that youngsters had been dressing as cats and canine whereas in school, with claims that faculties had been accommodating them with litter containers.
“They meow they usually bark they usually work together with their lecturers on this vogue,” Bostelman mentioned throughout legislative debate. “And now faculties are wanting to place litter containers within the faculties for these youngsters to make use of. How is that this sanitary?”
The rumor has persevered in a personal Fb group, “Shield Nebraska Kids,” and in addition surfaced final month in an Iowa faculty district, forcing the superintendent to write down to oldsters that it was “merely and emphatically not true.”
Bostelman had mentioned that he deliberate to debate the difficulty with the CEO of the Nebraska Division of Well being and Human Companies. He additionally alleged that faculties weren't permitting youngsters to put on flags, however didn’t give particular examples. In 2016, Lincoln’s public faculty district briefly requested college students to not fly American flags from their autos after one flag was pulled from its holder, however faculty officers later apologized.
The false declare that youngsters who establish as cats are utilizing litter containers at school loos has unfold throughout the web since not less than December, when a member of the general public introduced it up at a college board assembly for Midland Public Faculties northwest of Detroit.
The declare was debunked by the district’s superintendent, who issued a press release that mentioned there had “by no means been litter containers inside MPS faculties.”
Nonetheless, the baseless rumor has unfold throughout the nation, and turn out to be gasoline for political candidates, amid the tradition wars and legislative motion involving gender identification in faculties.
Hours after his remarks, Bostelman backtracked and acknowledged that the story wasn’t true. He mentioned he checked into the claims with state Sen. Lynne Walz, a Democrat who leads the Legislature’s Training Committee, and confirmed there have been no such incidents.
“It was simply one thing I felt that if this actually was taking place, we wanted to handle it and tackle it shortly,” Bostelman mentioned.
The furor over public faculty restrooms comes as a rising variety of conservative states search legal guidelines to ban transgender college students from utilizing loos that match their gender id.
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Related Press reporter Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.
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Comply with Grant Schulte on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrantSchulte