Second graders are learning about furries in school?
That’s what the prominent right-wing Twitter account Libs of TikTok (@LibsofTikTok) said in a tweet on Monday. However, it turns out that Libs of TikTok fell for a troll. The accusations she tweeted were faked.
“A second grade teacher in @AustinISD allegedly gave students worksheets on furries,” the account, which is run by conservative activist Chaya Raichik, claimed. “These included a furry wordsearch and an activity on designing your own furry persona.”
In the tweet, Libs of TikTok embedded two photos: a screenshot from a Facebook post claiming to be the concerned parent of one of those second graders and a picture of the alleged furry-related coursework. The worksheets included a “Design Your Fursona” page that supposedly asked students to pick out their furry’s gender and a “Furries Word Search.” An additional sheet pictured allegedly informed parents that their students would be learning about “youth subcultures, from goths to furries” for “Culture Month.”
The Libs of TikTok account also included the Twitter handle for Austin Independent School District, @AustinISD, a district that runs 125 schools based in Austin, Texas, in the tweet. As a result, @AustinISD received thousands of inflammatory tweets, alleging that they were teaching “sexual fetishes” to children, “grooming” young kids, and accusing the school district of child abuse.
Mashable reached out to the school district via phone and email correspondence. Austin ISD Media Relations Manager Cristina Nguyen confirmed that these worksheets were not taught in any second grade class and were not part of the district’s curriculum.
