1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

Regarding House Bill 4814 I do not know Stan Gerdes. Maybe he is a serious man, in most cases. However, House Bill 4814, the "FURRIES Act", shows no sign of it. Let us leave aside that children often play make-believe, including pretending to be animals. This is not related to the furry subculture; this is simply play, as has no doubt happened for thousands of years. However, this act would require schools to bar such behavior. Instead, I want to turn to Gerdes restriction that there not be litter boxes in the classroom. Now, the hysteria about litter boxes being common in classrooms is known to be just that... hysteria. It is, however, rooted in a kernel of truth. Some classrooms do have cat litter for student use... in the event of a lockdown, caused by an armed intruder. As we saw in Uvalde, such a lockdown can last hours as police attempt to find what are supposed to be their core competency of stopping bad guys. In such a situation, children will need to relieve themselves, and will be unable to go to the toilet through unsecured halls. It is for that reason that some classrooms have litter for student use. Not so Johnny can pretend to be a cat and pop a squat during a math test... so children at threat of murder by armed intruders don't have to soil themselves. This act is a waste of the legislature's limited time. It is grandstanding, and it is despicable. Representative Gerdes is exploiting hysteria around harmless acts, or rare individual choices, to take away the dignity of students in a crisis situation, and the state house by simply considering this nonsense. Laugh in his face, because this bill deserves no more than that.