By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice
Rumors about students dressing as animals and disrupting classrooms have circulated throughout Colorado for years, sparking political fights, school board blowback and media denials. Some say the “furries in schools” narrative is a hoax pushed by conservative figures. But school records, parent testimony and disciplinary documents tell a more complicated story.
First signs: When parents spoke up and were ignored
The saga gained momentum in 2022 when more than two dozen parents in Jefferson County bombarded school officials with concerns. Darlene Edwards, a mother whose 14-year-old autistic son attended a local middle school, told CBS Colorado her son returned home upset, describing classmates in animal costumes scratching, hissing, barking and crawling on all fours through the hallways.
Edwards’ niece added that students ate lunch with their faces buried in food and proudly called themselves “animal avengers.”
The controversy grew in March 2022 when members of Jeffco Kids First, led by Lindsay Datko, posted about furries on Facebook. One photo showed a student in costume.
A member commented, “Kids are called out all the time for dress code violations… However this is acceptable and part of EVERY day at our school… It really bothers my kids.” The post and others like it were later cited in court filings from Datko v. Dunn.
Datko emailed school officials with concerns about distractions, safety and disruptive animal-like behaviors. But when asked publicly, JeffCo spokesperson Kimberly Eloe insisted, “There is absolutely no truth to this claim,” a statement issued in September 2022.
That denial didn’t hold. CBS Colorado and The Federalist obtained internal emails through the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) showing that JeffCo administrators were actively tracking the issue.
Superintendent Tracy Dorland emailed staff in October 2022 asking who would respond to “emails about furries.” School board member Susan Miller responded, “We have received numerous emails from parents that state their child is experiencing this disruptive behavior. I have had parents show me pictures their children have taken of ‘furries’ at their school.”
One parent with a student at Drake Middle School wrote, “I am so thankful that Drake took a stand and banned the ears and tails. This behavior was very disruptive for my student there last year.” Drake banned costume-type attire on August 18, 2022.
Several parents met with reporters at a local coffee shop and shared photos of students in full costume. Though the photos remain private to protect minors’ identities, the stories were consistent.
One parent said, “I find it absurd that kids can’t wear baseball hats in school, girls are limited to the length of their shirts… yet there are students wearing animal ears, meowing and barking at other kids, and being a constant distraction.”
The controversy escalated when 2022 Republican gubernatorial candidate, Heidi Ganahl, said in a September 2022 radio interview that “kids are identifying as cats” in some Colorado classrooms.
Local and national media quickly moved to discredit her. Forbes called it a “hoax” and KDVR aired a segment showing school officials flatly denying it.
Ganahl was labeled a conspiracy theorist by progressive outlets and pundits. Yet JeffCo’s own emails showed the district knew these behaviors were happening and tried to manage the fallout privately while denying it publicly.
And a North Denver Metro area high school expressed their worries about the “furries” phenomenon in an email to Ganahl in August 2022. The student reported seeing a fully costumed furry enter school during hot weather which caused discomfort among peers because of close interactions including a tail bump incident.
The student raised concerns about dress code violations, potential security risks from concealed identities, and the social isolation of furries, suggesting it might lead to bullying or harm. The email highlighted a broader student perspective on the issue’s impact.
The saga continues
The controversy surrounding students dressing as “furries” in schools didn’t just generate headlines—it led to a lawsuit. In 2023, Lindsay Datko and JeffCo Kids First filed a defamation case against reporter Rylee Dunn and the Arvada Press. At the center of the suit was a Facebook post Datko made during the height of the furry debate, which she says was misrepresented in media coverage.
In her September 28, 2022 post, Datko wrote:
“The media is really trying to spin this. If any of your kids would be willing to record anonymous audio of their experiences with furries hissing, barking, clawing, chasing, and how it affects their school day, please send to me or let me know ASAP!”
Dunn, in her reporting, claimed Datko was encouraging parents to have their children secretly record classmates. She wrote that Datko “urged the nearly 6,000 members of JeffCo Kids First to have their kids secretly record their classmates,” a statement Datko later called false and harmful.
According to Datko, she was asking parents to speak with their children and, if they were willing, to have them anonymously record audio describing their own experiences—not to film or record others. She received exactly what she was seeking: anonymous audio recordings from students recounting what they had witnessed in school and how it affected them. One of those recordings was sent to district leadership.
Two Jefferson County judges determined the defamation case brought by Datko and JeffCo Kids First should go to trial. One of them, District Judge Ryan P. Loewer, wrote that the plaintiffs had a “reasonable likelihood” of success and pointed out that a jury could see the reporting in question as “clear and convincing evidence, albeit circumstantial, of Defendants’ anger and hostility.”
That momentum was short-lived. The Colorado Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s decision, ending the lawsuit before it could reach a jury. The outcome has fueled debate about Colorado’s anti-SLAPP law—meant to shield free speech—which some critics say may also leave those harmed by defamation without a path to justice.
In a blog post titled Inside the Wounds of Words, Datko reflected on the impact: “This was never about punishing the press. This was about restoring the truth. That a reporter can say a mother encouraged children to secretly record their classmates—without evidence—should concern every parent.”
The post concludes, “Free speech deserves protection. But so does the truth.”
By 2024, new incidents and social media posts confirmed the issue hadn’t gone away. On April 18, 2024, a Twitter/X user, @WildfireWhisper, posted about their son encountering students in a JeffCo middle school wearing dog collars, growling, biting and calling him “doggy daddy” as a come-on.
Another user, @deaconvick20978, said, “This is happening nation-wide. My grandkids in Colorado & Oregon are experiencing it too.”
On October 11, 2024, a Colorado Springs mom named Emily stood on stage with her daughter and son at a Trump rally in Aurora.
Her daughter, Macy, told the crowd, “I had to help a kindergartner from stepping in like poop and pee because kids that identify as animals go to the bathroom on the floor.” Emily added, “They get meowed at, they get barked at. Kids scratch me on the back because they identify as a cat. It’s horrible!”
She called out Governor Jared Polis for dismissing the issue. “This is not something that the media is making up. This is something that my children experience every single day… And our governor thinks it’s imaginary. It sucks. Polis sucks.”
In May 2025, another parent posted, “My son goes to school in Colorado, 5th grade. 2 furries get to meow and bark for their answers in class.” The post went viral among parental rights groups.
A similar story was shared by a Moffat County resident who spoke with RMV off the record. She recalled a mother and teenage daughter from Steamboat Springs who reported that a peer at school wore a leash and fastened it to their desk. The student reportedly identified as a furry and bullied classmates who felt uncomfortable.
The family was so disturbed they withdrew their daughter and chose homeschooling. RMV has not yet verified this account but shares it as part of a pattern reported by multiple families across the state.
Yet CORA requests submitted to JeffCo and Academy School District 20 on July 1, 2025, produced no new records. Whether that means the problem is subsiding or schools have stopped documenting it isn’t clear.
The “furries” issue extends beyond Colorado, as evidenced by a protest at Mt. Nebo Middle School in Payson, Utah, in April 2024. Students and parents demonstrated against alleged “biting” and “licking” by furries, chanting phrases like “We the people, not the animals” and “Stop brainwashing us,” according to reports from KTVX and Fox News.
A Change.org petition with over 3,000 signatures called for enforcing the Nebo School District’s dress code to ban furry costumes. However, district officials denied the rumors, stating no students wore full costumes or exhibited animal behavior, and emphasized maintaining a positive learning environment.
This highlights an issue of school districts denying allegations made by students and parents on a national scale.
Inside an Elementary School: Skyway’s cyberbullying case reveals deeper reality
What many assume is a high school trend took root far earlier. At Skyway Elementary—part of Cheyenne Mountain School District 12—public records from April 2024 reveal a disturbing instance of cyberbullying tied directly to furry identity.
Though heavily redacted, the screenshots and internal emails show elementary-age students insulting a peer with slurs like “furry” and “therian,” referencing animal-like behavior and identity with a degree of fluency that surprises even seasoned investigators.
Screenshot from student group chat identifying a peer as a “furry,” taken from CMSD12 records obtained through CORA (April 2024).
Additional messages from the CMSD12 incident showing slurs and references to furry identity and behavior.
Black redactions were made by Cheyenne Mountain School District 12 prior to release under the Colorado Open Records Act. Red redactions were applied by Rocky Mountain Voice to censor explicit profanity, and also to protect the identity of youth in accordance with our editorial standards.
One telling detail in the group chat stands out: a student writes, “stanky a** furry, STFU U therian.” At first glance it seems like a random insult—but therian is a real term.
Online communities describe a therian as “an individual who identifies as a non‑human animal to some degree.” It’s different from a furry fan—it’s deeper, an identity, not just a hobby. That usage suggests these students weren’t just playing around. They were using insider language, showing that even children in these group texts were self-identifying and being acknowledged–and even bullied for their animal identity in real time.
That subtle but sharp jab—calling someone a therian—adds to the evidence: furry or animal‑based identity is not only present in schools, it’s known, understood and mocked by peers.
Records show that Skyway Elementary treated the incident as cyberbullying tied to furry behavior. Released through a CORA request, the documents are heavily redacted—any direct references by teachers or administrators to students as furries, if they exist, are blacked out with no explanation.
Internal school email confirming law enforcement involvement following the bullying incident at Skyway Elementary.
A mother of a student from Skyway Park Elementary School reported that tails and ears were initially banned but later permitted inside the school, with students wearing masks and engaging in animal behaviors like running on all fours, barking and growling during recess, mostly in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades as recently as 2024. Specifically, she noted “There were 2 girls that identified as wolves” and that they “both ran away on all fours.”
When asked if this was still an issue at the end of the recent school year, she stated, “They had tails and ears on during school and at recess. They could wear masks. The principal said they couldn’t wear tails at school, but nobody cared or enforced it,” highlighting ongoing enforcement challenges at the school.
Vindication and silence
Public officials and media figures dismissed concerns about furries in schools as paranoid or political. But for the families who lived it—who watched their children barked at, scratched or withdrawn from school altogether—the disruption was real.
School records, emails, rally testimonies and discipline letters reveal what many tried to hide: students acting like animals were not only present in Colorado classrooms, they were protected, ignored or quietly excused by administrators afraid to address the truth.
Whether the behavior has faded or simply gone underground, one thing is certain—those who warned the public weren’t making it up.
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