A woman who was working as a substitute teacher posted a video to social media alleging she was fired by school officials for not "identifying with" a student who "identifies as a cat" after she refused to meow back at the child in class.
"Okay, okay. I've got to rant for a minute," the teacher says in a short TikTok video. "Just when I thought school couldn't get any weirder, it did today."
"I'm a sub, and the most important we do is take roll, so the school gets paid. So, I'm looking at the seating chart as I'm going up and down the rows and marking who's here and who's not," the TikTok user, who uses the screen name @crazynamebridgetmichael and has posted several videos in a school setting, continues in the clip posted about four days ago. "I get to the third row and I hear this 'meow!' Uhhh, excuse me? Excuse me?" she narrates.
"I start looking on the ground, through the fourth row — everything's good. Go to the fifth row — everybody's there. Then I hear 'meow!' I'm like, 'Okay, what's up with that? Who's doing it?' And this little girl in the very front row says, 'You have to meow back at him; he identifies as a cat.' Are you kidding me?" she questions.
"I said, 'Is there a litter box in here somewhere?' My sarcasm self: I probably should not have said that," the educator continues in the clip.
"He gets up and he storms out of the classroom, and I'm like, 'Ruff!' Of course, the entire class is laughing. I think, 'Oh, no problem, no foul.' I go to the office — Are you ready for this? — to check out. They said, 'We no longer need your services if you can't identify with all the children in the classroom.' And you wonder why they don't have any subs!" the teacher exclaims on video.
"I told the lady, I said, 'I didn't know cats were considered people; I thought they were pets.' Another school off my list," the teacher concludes the TikTok video that's captioned, "a typical day of subbing! can't make this up..."
I am not sure anymore. This world is all FUBAR.