Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 77. Sunrise is 5:37 AM and sunset 8:05 PM for 14h 27m 34s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 54.4% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1662, the figure who later became Mr. Punch makes his first recorded appearance in England.
Ali Swenson reports Wisconsin school district does not have ‘furry protocol’:
CLAIM: The Waunakee Community School District in a suburb of Madison, Wisconsin, has a “furry protocol” that allows students who identify as “furries” to opt out of speaking in class, sit and lick their paws during gym class and bark and growl in hallways.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The district does not have a protocol for students who identify as animals, and it does not allow disruptions at school, according to Superintendent Randy Guttenberg.
THE FACTS: A baseless rumor that students who dress up as animals are getting special treatment in a Wisconsin school district is circulating widely online this week after a conservative radio host said she’d received an email about the issue last month.
Vicki McKenna, who hosts a show on a Madison AM radio station, said on a March 17 podcast that a she received an email from a grandparent of students in the Waunakee Community School District saying the students were being told to “normalize” the behavior of classmates who preferred to dress and act like animals.
“The Furries can choose whether they want to speak in class or not,” read part of the purported email, shared onscreen in a video version of the podcast hosted by a University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, professor. “The Furrys [sic] are allowed to dress in their choice of furry costumes. The Furries can choose not to run in gym class but instead sit at the feet of their teacher and lick their paws. Barking hissing and similar animal noises are common place [sic] in the hallways at the schools.”
The claim is completely false, according to Guttenberg, who clarified in an email to The Associated Press that “the Waunakee Community School District does not have protocols for Furries, nor do we allow disruptions in our school and classrooms.”
McKenna did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
So help me God, I have no idea what I would say if something this asinine circulated in Whitewater. This small city has enough challenges.
One should, however, be compassionate: each and every person who believed this rumor should receive a free-of-charge wellness check. It’s the least society can do to assure that these addled Wisconsities don’t injure themselves while operating appliances or driving.
Emperor penguins in Antarctica monitored by robot: