A private school in Australia is supporting a young “non-verbal” student identifying as a cat.
Indy 100 reports, According to Kathleen Gerbasi, a Professor in Niagara County Community College’s Department of Psychology, this behavior is often influenced by a furry subculture adopted by many teens, where furry individuals have a strong bond with a specific animal that they adopt as their “fursona.”
According to Sharon Roberts, associate professor of social development studies at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, the subculture is becoming more popular due to its safe and non-judgmental environment.
During an interview with Renison University College, the professor briefly explained what a “furry” is.
However, as noted by DailyMail.com. In his 25 years of practice, Australian adolescent psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg has only encountered one client who identified as an animal. He was a young boy who identified as a dog. As soon as the boy’s stressors were removed, he started identifying as a human again. Furry website Furscience says three quarters of those adopting fursonas are under 25.
Getting back to the girl in Australia, a source close to the family of the girl said: “No one seems to have a protocol for students identifying as animals, but the approach has been that if it doesn’t disrupt the school, everyone is being supportive. The behavior is being normalized. Now more and more people are identifying as whatever they want to identify with, including ‘furries’.”
Louder with Crowder brought up a good point in regards to those affected by this bizarre story, writing, “We are left wondering how the students really feel about [this girl] versus how they pretend to feel because they don’t want to get canceled on social media.”
