Matt Walsh Reacts to Public School Insanity

Summary

The Matt Walsh Show: Detailed Summary of "Matt Walsh Reacts to Public School Insanity"

Release Date: March 29, 2025

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Introduction

In the episode titled "Matt Walsh Reacts to Public School Insanity," host Matt Walsh delves into recent controversial incidents in public schools, scrutinizing administrative decisions and their impact on students and communities. This summary captures the key discussions, insights, and conclusions drawn during the episode, highlighting Walsh's critical perspective on the matters at hand.

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I. Deer Creek High School's Controversial Fundraising Event

Timestamp: 00:10 – 02:08

A. Event Overview

The episode opens with a report from Fox 25 in Oklahoma concerning a fundraising event at Deer Creek High School. The event, intended to raise money for "nyaj Average Joe Coffee," involved students participating in unusual and graphic activities to garner donations.

B. Parent Reactions

Parents expressed shock and disgust over the students' actions during the event. One parent, Adam, described the scene as "deeply disturbing" [00:34]. Another parent, Wendy, shared her horror upon learning that students were "licking peanut butter off of toes" [01:10]. Wendy further added, “I had to ask her, like, wait, what? They're licking peanut butter off of toes. What?" [01:12].

C. School District's Stance

Deer Creek High School defended the event, stating that it was entirely student-organized with no faculty or staff involvement. The school highlighted that the fundraising efforts successfully raised over $152,000. A representative stated, “All participants in the assembly were students who signed up for the game that they played ahead of time. No Deer Creek faculty or staff participated in any of the games during this Clash of Classes assembly” [01:41].

D. Matt Walsh's Critique

Matt Walsh criticized the school's decision, comparing it unfavorably to traditional fundraising activities like candy sales and bake sales. He expressed disbelief at the nature of the event, stating, “They decided to have students lick... peanut butter off of each other's... feet in front of an entire gymnasium. It’s one of those... a normal person can't wrap their mind around it” [02:08].

Walsh further scrutinized the school district's lack of accountability, noting, “They don't apologize. They don't accept any responsibility at all, don't hold themselves accountable” [02:08]. He emphasized that the district stood firmly behind the controversial event, failing to acknowledge its inappropriateness despite the negative reception.

Notable Quote:

“They decided... to have students lick peanut butter off of each other's... feet... I'm still approximately 95 billion miles away from anything that could be considered appropriate or worthwhile for a school activity.” – Matt Walsh [02:08]

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II. Mount Nebo Middle School's Furry Walkout Protest

Timestamp: 08:10 – 14:08

A. Incident Overview

Transitioning to another incident, the episode covers a walkout at Mount Nebo Middle School in Utah. Students protested against the presence of "furries" in the school, arguing that administrators were allowing students to attend classes dressed in animal costumes, which they found distracting and inappropriate.

B. Student and Parent Perspectives

The protest began with a petition that quickly amassed over 500 signatures. Participants voiced concerns about the enforcement of dress codes and the influence of furry culture within the school. One student remarked, “They think they're so cool so people could come at them and just look at them to think that they're so cool” [08:35]. Another expressed fear of repercussions, saying, “We might if we look back on... We're standing for one... They attack us” [08:47].

C. Contradictory Statements from School Personnel

Conflicting accounts emerged regarding the actual behavior of the students in furry costumes. A substitute teacher, Rebecca Hunsaker Barney, criticized the protesting parents, stating, “A few kids dress as pets, stay to themselves... They are constantly picked on and bullied” [09:10]. However, footage showed students engaged in disruptive behavior, contradicting the teacher's claims. Additionally, interviews with students depicted aggressive actions attributed to the furries, such as "biting," "scratching," and "pouncing" [09:12].

D. Matt Walsh's Analysis and Response

Walsh highlighted the administrative failure to manage or regulate the situation effectively. He pointed out the inconsistency between the teacher’s statements and the actual behavior observed, questioning the school's oversight. Walsh asserted, “Any halfway sane person should agree that the dress code should at least require that every student dress like a human” [10:57]. He criticized the normalization of animal costumes in schools, likening it to unhealthy behavior even in younger children.

Notable Quote:

“If my four-year-old at home was dressing like an animal every day, I'd be a little concerned... That's an unhealthy fixation for a child of any age” – Matt Walsh [10:57]

E. Media Representation and Miscommunication

Walsh also addressed the role of local media in perpetuating confusion. He cited an ABC affiliate interview where a furry was referred to by her character's name, obscuring the reality of the situation. This, according to Walsh, muddles public perception and contributes to the ongoing controversy.

Notable Quote:

“She doesn't want these kids to muddy the name of furries... They shouldn't do anything that gives the public the impression that people who walk around in animal costumes are, I don't know, weird, bizarre, deranged” – Matt Walsh [14:08]

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Conclusion

In this episode, Matt Walsh critically examines two troubling incidents within public schools—Deer Creek High School's toe-licking fundraising event and Mount Nebo Middle School's furry walkout protest. Walsh underscores a recurring theme of administrative oversight and accountability failures, advocating for more stringent regulations to maintain appropriate school environments. Through incisive commentary and highlighted quotes, Walsh calls for a reevaluation of current school practices to protect students' well-being and uphold societal standards.

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Transcript

[Host 1]

Here's a report from Fox 25 in Oklahoma that I hope you're not eating right now, but if you are, fair warning. Here it is.

[Reporter 1]

Deer Creek High School.

[Host 1]

Fox 25's David Chasanoff has reaction from.

[Parent 1]

The district and its parents tonight.

[Host 1]

David, what are you hearing?

[Reporter 1]

Adam and Wendy, a parent whose child attended the event calls it deeply disturbing. And we do want to warn you, the video you're about to see may be graphic to some viewers. This video shows Deer Creek High School students licking toes at a fundraising event Thursday. We have blurred their faces to hide their identity.

[Parent 2]

It was surprising. I didn't think we were gonna. They were gonna do all that. I was just shocked. I didn't really have, like, a feeling. I was, like, kind of disgusted, building, like, kind of glad I wasn't over there.

[Host 1]

He is devouring them.

[Parent 2]

Whenever she told me yesterday that was happening, I had to ask her, like, wait, what? They're licking peanut butter off of toes. What?

[Reporter 1]

The Deer Creek school district confirmed the video with Fox 25 saying the students volunteered in challenges to help raise money during their philanthropy week.

[Parent 2]

I am all for fundraising and all for really fun and silly things, but that right there just seemed a little excessive.

[Parent 1]

Oh, my.

[Reporter 1]

Deer Creek Schools says every student who participated signed up for the games they played ahead of time and that no faculty or staff were involved during the assembly. They note that the fundraising week helped raise more than $152,000.

[Parent 2]

It's really great that they raised a lot of money. I feel like maybe they could have done a little bit more accountability and ownership in that statement for, hey, you know, maybe we didn't fully think this thing through here.

[Host 1]

So just to review here, this school, Deer Creek High School, decided to have a fundraising event. And so far. So far, so good. Fundraising event. Nothing wrong with that. When I was a kid, we did fundraisers all the time in school. We sold candy bars, we did walkathons, we had bake sales, we did car washes. That sort of thing. Where it all goes off the rails is that they decided for their fundraising activity that they were gonna have students lick, apparently lick, peanut butter off of each other's food feet in front of an entire gymnasium. And it's one of those. It's hard. It's really. If you're a normal person, you can't wrap your mind around it. Exactly. Because this was an idea that someone at the school had and proposed. Right. And then it was organized to. It was like, multiple people are involved here. I don't know how many, but multiple the involvement, it goes beyond just one person and they're organizing this. And at no point before or during did anybody stop and say, you know, I don't know if we should do the toe licking thing. I don't know if that. Maybe we shouldn't. That might be a horror. It might actually. That might make us look like sicko pedophiles with foot fetishes if we do that. So maybe we shouldn't. Nobody said that, apparently. And they just charged right ahead. And then when the video of this event goes viral as it was destined to, the school district doesn't apologize. They don't accept any responsibility at all, don't hold themselves accountable. They don't even admit that it was probably a bad idea. So that's what you have to understand. The school district is standing behind this. They're standing behind the toe sucking video. They will not acknowledge, even in hindsight, they won't acknowledge that there was anything wrong with it. This is from. So they read a little bit of the statement. But it's just. It's so incredible that. Let me read the statement to you. This afternoon, Deer Creek High School announced a grand total of $152,830 raised for not yout Average Joe Coffee, an organization created to inspire our community by including students and adults with intellectual, developmental and physical disabilities. According to their website, this total was raised through a week of events and activities at both Deer Creek High School and Deer Creek Middle School, all designed to bring our community together for an extremely impactful organization. On Thursday, February 29, Deer Creek High School hosted an assembly called the Clash of Classes for students who paid to attend. During this assembly, 9th through 12th grade students volunteered to participate in various student organized class competitions in the spirit of raising money for nyaj. All participants in the assembly were students who signed up for the game that they played ahead of time. No Deer Creek faculty or staff participated in any of the games during this Clash of classes assembly. Many dedicated students gave generously of their personal time to achieve this momentous accomplishment which will serve communities beyond the boundaries of Deer Creek. That's it. There's no apology there. Nothing. They are not convinced yet that the foot Fetish festival was a miscalculation. In fact, they defended on the basis that it raised a lot of money. This momentous accomplishment of licking peanut butter off of toes was a great achievement. And they also say. They also defended by saying that the students were not. They volunteered for it, so they were not held at gunpoint. Okay, well, that's good news. I guess. And they have to stipulate that there were no teachers involved. So it was not teachers having their toes sucked by students. This was a student. These were all students. And if that makes this any better, it makes it better by about an inch. However, we're still approximately 95 billion miles away from anything that could be considered appropriate or worthwhile for a school activity. Are you looking to deepen your faith this Lenten season? Well, now's the time to join Hallow's Lent Pray 40 challenge the way. This 40 day journey leading up to Easter is all about growing closer to God through prayer, fasting and reflection. And Hallow is making it easier than ever to stay committed. Imagine starting your day with Mark Wahlberg and Chris Pratt, guiding you through meaningful sacrifices that strengthen your spirit. Then let Jonathan Roumie and Sister Miriam James lead you through powerful prayers and inspiring stories of faith. Don't miss Father Mike Schmidt's thought provoking Sunday homilies that will keep you focused on how Jesus is truly the way to heaven. The beauty of this journey? Yes, it includes sacrifice, but that sacrifice leads to incredible peace, joy, healing and love. You're not going to be alone either. Thousands around the world are already praying together in what's becoming Hallow's biggest Lent ever. If you're ready to join them, you can get three months free when you sign [e-mail] Matt Walsh that covers your entire Lenten season and beyond. Once you download the Hallow app, you'll unlock thousands of guided prayers, meditations and spiritual music, all designed to help you find peace and grow closer to God. Don't wait. Download Hallow and jump into the Lent Pray 40 challenge. Today, let's try to follow the winding contours of this rather bizarre story. It begins earlier this week with students at Mount Nebo Middle School in Utah staging a walkout in protest of all the furries that administrators have allowed to infest the school. It began with a petition, which gained over 500 signatures in a few days, calling for the school to start enforcing its dress codes and stop allowing students to come to class dressed in their furry costumes. And then came the walkout. Adam Bartholomew is a local commentator in Utah, captured footage of the event and of the kids outside the school, talked to them and asked them what their complaints were. And let's watch a little bit of that. So are they wearing a mask every day?

[Parent 1]

Yes, yes. But every time we go they're always just wearing a mask. But the principal finally stood up and banned those stuff. But they have but they still wear them every day. And they don't get in trouble. The principal doesn't make them get in trouble. Yeah. All the principal says is, just be kind, be nice. Be nice.

[Host 1]

And then what's the point of dressing up like a furry.

[Parent 1]

They think they're so cool so people could come at them and just look at them to think that they're so cool.

[Host 1]

Okay, Are you guys gonna be in trouble for walking out of school today? No. Maybe.

[Parent 1]

We might if we look back on. Hopefully not. We're standing for one. The furries are. This is wrong. We should. They should not be nearby.

[Host 1]

Do your parents know you guys are out here?

[Parent 1]

Yes. They attack us. If they bite us and we just kick them, we get in trouble. They attack us. They attack us.

[Host 1]

How else do they attack you guys?

[Parent 1]

They bite us. They scratch us, they. They pounce on us. They run on all fours and pounce on people.

[Host 1]

So the furries have gone feral. It seems they're biting and scratching and pouncing on people. Some of the students have had enough of this behavior. They want to go to school at a school, not at a petting zoo, and that's why they walked out. Here's a video from a guy named Eric Maltzis with more insight from people who work at the school. Listen to what he says.

[Teacher 1]

Problem is, a substitute teacher from Mount Nebo Middle School contacted me and said, this has been happening for over a year, and this one is actually really sad, and this person needs to be reprimanded. Rebecca Hunsaker, Barney said, this is the school I work at. I'm embarrassed for the parents that just believed everything their kids told them, then staged a protest without even contacting the school to find out what is really happening. The truth is that a few kids dress as pets, stay to themselves. They do not do any of these things these kids are reporting. However, they are constantly picked on and bullied, so the kids stay to themselves. What about the video I just got from a concerned parent where this girl acting like a dog is going after these students? This gets even better. Honestly, we had the most wonderful, peaceful day yesterday because most of the troublemakers were out protesting. A lie. Really? Because that doesn't look like a lie. The halls were quiet and actually cleaner without them there. This is a teacher at the school. This teacher's supposed to look at these kids in the eye, unbiased, and give them grades.

[Host 1]

Okay, well, that confirms it, then. You know, the furries being in school is not a rumor. It's not misinformation. And the left has been denying that this sort of thing is happening for years. They've claimed that this is all the claims of furries at school and kids coming to school dressed as animals. They've been saying for years that this is a total right wing myth completely made up. But here you have a teacher who is on the side of the furries, A teacher who doesn't like the kids who were protesting, admitting publicly that that, quote, a few kids dress as pets. And she says that like it's completely normal, like she sees no problem with it, as if it's normal childhood behavior. I don't know about you, but when I went to school, we had precisely zero kids dressing as pets at school. What? Well, she acts like she doesn't have a problem with it and she doesn't. And that is the problem. Now look, we can have debates over dress codes and how strict they could be or should be, but any halfway sane person should agree that the dress code should at least require that every student dress like a human. At a minimum, dressing as a pet is not something that a child of any age should be doing on a regular basis. Okay, if my four year old at home was dressing like an animal every day, I'd be a little concerned even about that. That's an unhealthy fixation for a child of any age but a middle school age child during school hours. By the way, the same guy, Eric Maltzes, has also obtained these photos of kids at this school dressed in their animal costumes, which you can see here. So we've got some kind of velociraptor lion hybrid thing and then a bunch of variations of cats, I guess. I think I see another lizard or maybe there's a dinosaur back there. Kids are dressing like this at school, coming to school in a full on mask and just walking around the school. Their parents are letting them leave the house in animal masks. Well, this is happening. It has not been debunked. It is real. It's a real thing. But we have not yet gotten to the weirdest part of this story. Somehow the local ABC affiliate decided to provide context by interviewing a furry in costume and referring to the woman as her fictional character's name during this interview. Watch this.

[Parent 1]

Is Strudel a member of the Furry fandom? Though they've been a Furry for over.

[Host 1]

A decade, they have their own opinions.

[Parent 1]

It's crazy that it's escalated to this point where these kids are being so distracting to their peers that their peers want to stage a walkout to have the next generation kind of muddy our name and not represent it very well. It is kind of disappointing. Strudel believes there should be some limits. Continue doing things you like, continue dressing up, continue making art, but maybe let's keep it outside school hours.

[Host 1]

Yeah. She doesn't want these kids to muddy the name of furries. They must not sully the reputation of the furries. They shouldn't do anything that gives the public the impression that people who walk around in animal costumes are, I don't know, weird, bizarre, deranged, mentally unbalanced.