The students show their animal identity by wearing masks, a tail and running around on four limbs called “quadrobics.”

On Nov. 15, 2022, a Howell Public Schools teacher wrote that a student identified as a therian. “Know what that means?” the email asked another teacher, who replied “No.” The district serves about 6,800 students.

One student emailed therian items the person wanted to buy on Amazon with an “allowance” including animal masks, fox ears, cat ears and a tail.

A document links to a blog post titled “Why autistic people might prefer kink.” The article warns it has “in-depth discussions of adult topics of kind and BDSM and brief mentions of sexual content.”

In March, The Center Square reported a Plymouth Canton Public Schools student identified as a therian, specifically an artic fox.

Utica Community Schools in Macomb County said it would charge The Center Square $482.94 for more than 700 therian documents. The costs cover employee time spent searching, redacting sensitive information and copying documents from its roughly 25,000 student population.

Midland Public Schools, which has about 7,436 students, said it would charge The Center Square $458 to produce an undetermined number of documents.

Wayne-Westland Community Schools said it would charge The Center Square $381 for 53 therian documents. The district has about 9,700 students.

Lansing School District said it would charge $377 for therian documents.

Documents obtained explain the following terms:

    • Kitluvollic: a gender relating to kittens, pink, love and dolls.
    • Animagauditraitic: a gender related to being excited and happy, but in an animalistic way (like a dog spinning and jumping around when they see their owner.”
    • Wizcatgender: a gender related to being a wizard and a cat.
    • Traitblur: a label for being unable to differentiate your identity from your interests.
    • Starwashic: this gender feels like stars washing up on a beach.
    • Prettygender: a new xenogender based off of feeling pretty or beautiful, comfort with one’s gender…”

Across six schools, the students apparently discovered the idea on social media—usually on Pinterest, TikTok and Reddit.

In social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s new book “The Anxious Generation,” Haidt argues smartphones are “rewiring” childhood and are causing an “epidemic of mental illness.”

Haidt says parents should keep children off social media before age 16, prioritize real-world play, enact phone-free schools and give high school students only a flip phone to help their mental health.

Originally published by The Center Square. Republished with permission.

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