This culture war staple is thought to have started two years ago with false claims in Canada that students were identifying as cats, disrupting classes and demanding litter boxes.

Social media posts spawned similar rumours in the United States about schools in Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, Minnesota, Tennessee, Arkansas and beyond.

In 2023, the hoax spread to the UK.

This month, a controversial video sparked more rumours and outrage about a college in East Sussex.

The controversy in England won’t surprise residents of north-east Scotland, where similar stories about students at Banff Academy were raised – and refuted – in January.

Each time it's revived and recycled, the hoax follows the same pattern.

READ MORE: Pupils identifying as cats? There are bigger issues at play

First: someone claims, without evidence, that local schools are being disrupted by students who identify as cats. (Often, there is an added rumour that schools have had litter boxes installed for them).

Second: the schools quickly deny and disprove the allegations.

The first piece gets the most attention. It carries the headlines and attracts comments from elected representatives on both sides of the Atlantic.

The second tends to fly under the radar.

As a result, each new false claim generates sensational commentary, as if it is a fresh incident that needs to be addressed and investigated.

In reality, each scandal is simply the latest extension of a debunked hoax that has been around for years.

Origins in North America

On October 19, 2021, Prince Edward Island education officials posted a Facebook announcement refuting false claims that schools were installing litter boxes to accommodate “students who identify as cats”.

Although rumours existed on social media, this is typically considered the earliest instance of a school or education authority publicly responding to this allegation.

Despite the official rebuke, almost identical stories gained traction in the United States.

They cropped up on campaign trails, at local school board meetings and even in state legislatures.

From high-profile Republican politicians such as US Representatives Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, to popular conservative commentators such as Joe Rogan and Matt Walsh, the hoax made sporadic appearances throughout 2022.

An NBC News investigation in October 2022 found that at least 20 major Republican politicians were spreading false claims about students identifying as cats.

Hoax fuelled by social media

The controversies often begin with uncorroborated claims online. The phrasing follows a similar pattern: schools have installed litter boxes in response to “demands” from students who identify as cats.

Last year, a fact-checking investigation by Reuters disproved the claims in every instance.

In most cases, social media instigators identify specific schools, but deflect the burden of proof away from themselves.

“Don’t say where you heard it,” said a 2022 Tweet which falsely claimed a New York school had installed a litter box.

Part of a larger culture war

These stories are not quirky urban legends. They are apart of a broader pattern of opposing trans rights and LGBTQ+ inclusive policies, especially in schools.

When the claims surfaced about Banff Academy this year, the Scottish Parliament was in the midst of a heated debate over its Gender Recognition Reform Bill.

In some cases, these rumours can be traced back to groups which oppose inclusivity.

In December 2021, a resident in Midland, Michigan made claims to the school board that there were litter boxes installed in local schools.

NBC reported that the resident who made the claims later founded a local chapter of Moms for Liberty, a conservative activist group.

In June of this year, American civil rights watchdog The Southern Poverty Law Center classed Moms for Liberty as an extremist group with an “anti-student inclusion” agenda.

It is less clear why rumours crop up at specific schools.

But sometimes, small kernels of fact provide a foothold.

In Colorado, false claims about students dressing as cats and using litter boxes may be rooted in the fact that the school kept kitty litter in “go buckets”: emergency caches kept on hand in case an armed intruder keeps students and teachers trapped in their classrooms.

READ MORE: Cat-children, Lewis Capaldi and the truth about today’s kids

Following the false claims about Banff in January, The Press & Journal reported that the school had cleaned up faeces at some point in, but in “an unrelated matter”.

And in East Sussex last week, an audio clip of a debate over gender identity between a teacher and pupils was enough to spark controversy across the country.

This despite there never being any suggestion that anyone at the school was identifying as a cat.

Instead, a debate over gender and the place of politics in the classroom reverted to a recycled, well-rehearsed hoax.