Lies, Litter Boxes, and the Long Con on Public Schools
A decade-long disinformation campaign that turned schools into the frontline of the culture war.
Today we begin in Canada.
In late 2021, a rumor cropped up at a Canadian school that a student who identified as a “furry” had been given access to a litter box in the bathroom. The school district quickly debunked the claim, but it was too late.
By early 2022, the hoax had crossed the border and landed in Midland, Michigan. There, a Moms for Liberty affiliate named Lisa Hansen claimed she’d heard that local schools had installed a litter box for students who “identify as cats.”
She tied this to “a national agenda that’s being pushed,” suggesting it was somehow connected to trans-inclusive policies or gender identity accommodations.
The allegation was absurd (and entirely false) but it spread like wildfire after Libs of TikTok got her grubby little hands on the video.
By the end of 2022, at least 20 Republican politicians had repeated the lie or demanded “investigations” into the alleged litter boxes in schools.
No one could produce a photo. No student had ever stepped forward. Every school named denied the claims. But the damage was done by the time Joe Rogan shared the story on air.
Honestly, none of them were ever concerned with finding the truth because it was never about litter boxes. It was about mocking gender identity, spreading anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, and manufacturing parental outrage.
By weaponizing this myth, the far-right had a snappy quip to lean into while portraying public schools as absurd, “woke” institutions gone off the rails.
So. How the heck did we get here?
The answer lies in a decade-long campaign that has transformed boring ol’ education policy into culture-war fodder.
Over the past 5–10 years, American public education has been recast by a faction of the right as a sinister indoctrination factory. They say we have a “government school” system brainwashing kids with liberal dogma and sexual perversion. Teachers have been slandered as “groomers” for acknowledging LGBTQIA+ people, librarians are painted as pornographers for stocking award-winning novels, and history curricula is called anti-white propaganda.
This narrative didn’t emerge from nowhere, however. It was carefully cultivated.
At the center of the story are savvy political wordsmiths and well-funded networks. Frank Luntz, a veteran GOP strategist renowned for testing and twisting language, helped pioneer the art of reframing education debates. His influence is echoed by groups like Moms for Liberty and online agitators like Libs of TikTok. Together, they’ve amplified and weaponized fears that public schools are not just failing, but actively corrupting children.
In this deep dive, I’ll examine the origins these right-wing narratives, from their roots in earlier culture clashes to their latest incarnations. Together, we’re going to follow the money and media ecosystem that propels these messages and explore the mounting counter-narratives to defend public schools from this onslaught of disinformation and demonization.
Strap in, y’all.