Nebraska lawmaker apologizes for debunked litter box claim
State Sen. Bruce Bostelman initially said he was “shocked” when he heard children were dressing as cats and dogs at school and officials were accommodating them with litter boxes.
Sen. Bruce Bostelman, a conservative Republican, repeated the false claim
during a public, televised debate on a bill intended to help school children who have behavioral problems. His comments quickly went viral
Bostelman initially said he was “shocked” when he heard stories that children were dressing as cats and dogs while at school, with claims that schools were accommodating them with litter boxes.
“They meow and they bark and they interact with their teachers in this fashion,” Bostelman said during legislative debate.
“And now schools are wanting to put litter boxes in the schools for these children to use. How is this sanitary?”
The rumor has persisted in a private Facebook group, “Protect Nebraska Children,” and also surfaced last month
in an Iowa school district, forcing the superintendent to write to parents that it was “simply and emphatically not true.”
Bostelman had said that he planned to discuss the issue with the CEO of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. He also alleged that schools were not allowing kids to wear flags, but didn’t give specific examples. In 2016, Lincoln’s public school district briefly asked students not to fly American flags from their vehicles after one flag was pulled from its holder, but school officials later apologized.
The false claim that children who identify as cats are using litter boxes in school bathrooms has spread across the internet since at least December, when a member of the public brought it up at a school board meeting for Midland Public Schools northwest of Detroit.