A 12-year-old transgender student in a small Oklahoma town near the Texas border was targeted in an inflammatory social media post by the parents of a classmate, leading to violent threats and driving officials to close the school for two days.

It all started on Facebook. Jamie Crenshaw, whose children attend public schools in the town, Achille, complained in a private Facebook group for students’ parents that the transgender girl, Maddie, was using a bathroom for girls.

“The transgender is already using the girls bathroom,” she wrote last week. “We have been told how the school has gone above and beyond to make sure he has his own restroom yet he is still using the girls. REALLY.... Looks like it’s gonna be a long year.”

Maddie usually uses one of the faculty restrooms. But on Aug. 8, her first day in seventh grade, she used the girls’ bathroom because she was in a new building and didn’t yet know where the faculty bathrooms were, said her mother, Brandy Rose, who asked that her daughter’s last name not be identified.

The Facebook group, Achille ISD Parents, which is not affiliated with the school, appears to have been taken down, but screengrabs of Ms. Crenshaw’s original post and the resulting vicious comments were shared widely online. The Crenshaws did not respond to messages or return phone calls requesting comment.

Maddie said that she was now afraid to sleep alone at night — but that even though she’s scared, she wants to stay in public school.

“I’m going to keep my head held up high and stay strong and go to school,” she said in an interview on Tuesday. “And won’t let those bullies drag me down.” Read more via New York Times