This week, parents and LGBTQ+ advocates were horrified when news broke of violent threatsmade against a 12-year-old transgender girl in Oklahoma, which caused her entire school district to close for safety reasons.

A group of adults who discovered that 12-year-old Maddie had used the girls' restroom on the first day of school posted threats to attack her with a knife and have her beaten up by other children. The threats were so vicious and detailed, it spurred the Achille, Oklahoma school district to shut down for two days and prompted Maddie’s mother, Brandy Rose, to file for a restraining order against one of the adults who threatened her child.

The incident has sparked a fundraiser, launched by a supporter on Maddie’s behalf, that has rapidly surpassed its original goal of $15,000. Rose plans to use the money to flee Oklahoma and move her family to Houston, Texas, where she hopes they will finally be safe from threats of violence. Rose and her husband have six children, four of whom still live at home. Their oldest daughter lives in Houston. Rose’s own mom, who lives next door, also wants to leave Achille after the ugly incident.

Ironically, the family originally moved to Achille from their previous Texas border town of Sherman two years ago, after Maddie was assaulted at school there.

“Maddie was physically attacked in the boys restroom in fourth grade,” says Rose, “And then bullied so bad that by the time she got to fifth grade, her and her brother — who went to the same school — were being taunted to commit suicide.”

Because the family had already endured one traumatic incident, it was downright terrifying when they discovered a group of adults in their new town were threatening to commit a hate crime against Maddie. Read more via them