Initially, there were no problems, she said. But after another elementary student accused Maddie of peeping under a girls’ restroom stall, officials at that school allowed Maddie to use a staff restroom, her mother told the outlet.
“My daughter leans very far forward to use the bathroom,” Rose said. “I can understand why someone seeing her lean forward would think, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s trying to look under.'”
After starting classes last week at the middle school, however, Maddie was unsure where to go and made an initial visit to the girls’ bathroom, according to her mother.
“Heads up parents of 5th through 7th grade girls,” wrote a commenter later on the parents’ Facebook page. “The transgender is already using the girls bathroom. 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. … Enough is enough.”
One commenter then described Maddie as “this thing.” Another inquired, “Why are parents letting their kids be transgender?”
“She’s an awesome kid,” she told KXII. “To see any fear in her, I can’t explain how bad that hurts me.”
“Our kids, our parents, most of our community is very, very good people … very open to all ethnicities, all populations and, really, we’ve got a group of kids that love each other,” said Superintendent Beene, according to KFOR. “We know of no bullying as far as this one situation is concerned.”
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No one has been charged with a crime, and the person named in the preliminary protective order granted on Friday to Maddie’s mother can challenge the order at a full hearing on Aug. 27, the sheriff says.
He adds that he reassured Maddie and her family that the community has their backs.
“The grandmother, the mother and Maddie, they have seen the strong support, and they are so greatly appreciative,” he says.
He says Maddie’s grandmother told him: “We were just in shock. We just didn’t know what to think of it all.”
“You just can’t threaten a child and expect to get away with it,” says Christian, a Bryan County native who says his forebears have called the area home since before Oklahoma won statehood in 1907. “We’re going to protect all the kids here in our county, along with all the parents.”
Maddie “seems content and ready to go back to school,” says the sheriff, who met with Maddie and her family Tuesday. “She was pretty excited.”
source: people.com
