Watch: Middle-School Kids Protest Staff Support for ‘Furries’ Clique

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - JULY 22: A cosplayer dressed as a furry boba fan attends the 5th A
Araya Doheny/Getty
Alana Mastrangelo

Middle school students walked out of a Nebo School District school in Payson, Utah, to protest the school staff’s support for a clique of “furries” — kids who pretend to be animals.

“They’re always just wearing a mask, but the principle finally stood up and banned those — but they still wear them every day, and they don’t get in trouble,” a student told reporters outside the school on Wednesday, according to video footage posted to social media.

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“All the principle says is just, ‘Be kind, be nice,'” a student added.

Several students also claimed that they have been physically attacked by their peers.

“They attack us and if we attack back, we get in trouble,” one student lamented.

After being asked how the so-called “furries” attack their peers, one student answered, “They bite us. They scratch us. They bark at us.”

“They run on all fours and pounce on people,” the student added.

Students also claimed their furry-clad peers have sprayed them with Febreze.

“They’re putting litter boxes in the girls’ bathroom,” another student declared.

After a reported off-camera said, “I heard that was just a rumor, several students immediately replied, “No, it’s true,” adding that they have personally seen the litter boxes.

“We can’t talk or say anything to the furries or even look at them, but they can come look at us, and they can say stuff to us and touch us — and we get in trouble if we do the same,” one student claimed.

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Nebo School District spokesperson Seth Sorenson dismissed the claims made by the student protestors on Wednesday, telling the Salt Lake Tribune that the protest appeared to be organized after a message sent from the school district to families last week was misinterpreted.

Sorenson also claimed that the students accused of being furries — a subculture of people who dress up like animal characters but act like humans — are not wearing full-body animal costumes to class and would not necessarily refer to themselves as “furries.”

“These are pretty young kids,” he said. “You’ll have students that show up with headbands and giant bows, you’ll have students that show up dressed as their favorite basketball player, or baseball player. That’s just what kids this age do.”

The district sent a message to families after two groups of students — one of which includes students who sometimes come to school wearing headbands “that may have ears on them” — got into an altercation and said things “that were overheard by others that the administration felt were inappropriate and shouldn’t be said,” Sorenson said.

Sorenson added that he believes some parents misinterpreted the message as the school district saying, “We want you to be kind to this group, but they don’t have to be kind to anyone else,” which he said wasn’t the intent.

“Nobody was taking the side of one group or another,” Sorenson said. “What we were saying is everyone needs to treat everyone else with respect.”

On Sunday, a Change.org petition titled, “Students for Humans at School, not animals aka furries,” was created calling on the school district to enforce its dress code. At the time of publishing, the petition has garnered 1,517 signatures.

Notably, adult furry culture features individuals who enjoy putting their sexual fetishes on public display, including Sam Brinton, President Joe Biden’s former deputy assistant secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the U.S. Department of Energy, who has been photographed with men wearing dog faces.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

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