Right-wingers have been desperately clamouring to share their views on the latest ‘World War Woke’ story after it was claimed that pupils in East Sussex were asserting their right to identify as animals.
Reports in the Daily Mail, Telegraph and rolling bulletins on GB News claim schools are now allowing children to identify as cats, horses and dinosaurs among other things – and teachers are failing to question them.
The reports have been described by Piers Morgan as being so bizarre they almost sound made-up, with the TalkTV presenter hitting out at “limitless self-identity” that has developed around the world.
“This isn’t satire, it’s a genuine story, its true. It’s going on in schools up and down the country,” he said.
Except, that’s not necessarily true.
Writing in Bylines Times, Otto English has unearthed the origins of the story, and how a “credulous media” took it at face value and ran with it.
A video uploaded to TikTok shows a brief, slightly ill-tempered discussion between a teacher and her students at Rye College concerning the school’s inclusive policies.
The pupils assert their belief that there are only two genders and the teacher challenges them over it, but at no point is there a reference to any child identifying as a cat.
The whole story is, as English put it, “fake news” at best and deeply transphobic at worse.
Funny how little it takes to upset the snowflakes these days!
Related: Lies, Damned Lies, and Boris
