A school district has been temporarily shut down after parents posted horrific messages about a transgender student who used the girls’ bathroom.
The messages were posted to a Facebook group for parents of students in Achille, Oklahoma, and called for 12-year-old Maddie to be castrated and beaten.
If that sounds extreme, it is. Screenshots of the parents’ comments are gaining international attention; their open hostility and violent rhetoric towards a child is incredibly upsetting.
This was all sparked when Maddie, who had been using the staff restroom, used the girls’ restroom just once, on the first day of seventh grade.
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That was enough to cause messages like these:
“If he wants to be a female make him a female,” wrote Eddie Belcher, adding, “a good sharp knife will do the job really quick.” That reprehensible remark was liked twice.
Kevin Bickerstaff called for the student to be physically attacked, while also referring to her as “it”: “Just tell the kids to kick ass in the bathroom and it won’t want to come back!!”
Another parent, Seth Shelbie Cooper, echoed the violent threat, apparently bringing his own child into the mix by suggesting he attack Maddie. Sixteen people either liked or laughed at the troubling comment.
Elsewhere on the page, Ty Hayes seemed delighted at the idea of calling a 12-year-old “this thing.”
Maddie’s mother Brandy told local news that Maddie “hadn’t been told where the staff bathroom was.”
“Before she was able to be told, she had to pee, so she used the girls’ bathroom one single time.”
When Brandy discovered all the above comments on Facebook, she feared for her and Maddie’s safety. They no longer sleep at home.
“That’s a threat against her life – that’s scary,” she said.
“These are adults making threats – I don’t understand it.”
Brandy added: “She’s an awesome kid. To see any fear in her – I can’t explain how bad that hurts me.”
Achille ISD Superintendent Rick Beene told Them: “We are putting in extra measures to help safeguard our students.
“We appreciate all the concern for our Achille students. Our school is shut down until Wednesday for safety precautions.
“While I will not go into specifics, we have increased security.
“Achille Public Schools and administration believe everyone should receive a safe and free education,” he added.
RIGay
There is just SO much bad energy on this planet, and most of it is amplified exponentially through the vapid, unfiltered echo chambers of Social Media.
Wayne_in_NYC
Don’t blame Social Media! Our inglorious bastard Racist in Chief has given all of the haters license to assault anyone and everyone who they don’t agree with. Might makes right! And he’s now preparing to prove it with our a Military Parade (in his honor of course) like any good dictator would do, down Pennsylvania Avenue in November. Other such parades have been held to celebrate the end of a war or for example, when GENERAL EISENHOWER, a military man, was inaugurated as President. But a draft dodger with heal spurs shouldn’t have to stand for hours saluting the military he never wanted anything to do with. None of the Trumps have ever served in the military except an uncle who worked with Tesla in WW2.
Mick406
Well, right out of the gate, President Trump is to blame for this. Lean left much? Your accusation is ridiculous. People of Oklahoma have always been very conservative and would have reacted this way no matter who was president. If Obama was still in office, who would you blame then?
Tony1129
Totallt agree!!
dwes09
Well, “right out the gate” there was a large and well documented increase in hate crimes against all minorities after the election. I guess in the weak and disordered regressive mind this is one huge coincidence that has nothing at all to do with the not particularly subtle encouragement towards violence that streamed like spittle from President Trump’s mouth at his “rallies”.
You may be pretty certain that had such a thing happened during Obama’s presidency as it likely did in parts of the country since it was under his watch that Trans rights and safety came into the public eye (but i don’t expect regressives to have much recall of reality, as they are so far removed from it), people would not have assumed they had license to be as vocally and publicly hateful. Now would they be so gleefully suggesting torture and murder of a child.
Decorum was still seen as a positive virtue under our last president. You regressives, on the whole, value crudity much more.
Kevan1
Mick406 get a clue and a life. While you are at it crawl up in the the ass of the one you so blindly and ignorantly follow. Sorry for the out burst just tired of people who are full of BS.
batesmotel
This was happening long before he was elected. Or were you living in a coffin back then?
gayjim1969
@batesmotel–No one said it wasn’t happening before Trump was elected, but if you read dwes09’s post, he said that “there was a large and well-documented increase in hate crimes against all minorities after the election.” What he is referring to is called “evidence” and “scientific proof,” not Trump and Conway’s alternative facts, which only require the ability to lie and a group of followers willing to believe anything you say.
bicapuno87
dfsdf
like Timothy answered I am amazed that someone able to make $7869 in four weeks on the
computer . find out here…
Sammy Schlipshit
Oooooooklahoma where the hateful homophobes comes sweepin’ down the plain….
batesmotel
It’s also in big cities too.
Brian
Calm down, we know. It’s a gay blog! You’re supposed to recognize that these are lyrics to a Broadway musical. And now everyone below is offended by insults to Oklahoma. Y’all are missing the point.
Sam6969
Adult bullies…how pathetic.
Kevan1
These bullies who say they are adults are subhuman and need a taste of there own medicine. Castrate or female circumcise them instead of attacking a child. This child obviously is wiser and understands her life better than some half assed excuse for humans and adults.
Kevan1
P.S. these people are subhuman TRASH!
frankie042172
This has to be against some law. Adults threatening a child and pushing other kids to do the child harm. Remember these disgusting creatures when you go to the poles if republicans can’t get elected they can’t allow racism to flourish.
Mick406
How about polling the parents and asking them to reveal their voter registration. What would you say if a great preponderance of them were Democrat voters?
jsmu
@Mick406 Aaaaand, from the dRUMPftroll who can think of nothing but Obama to blame, two years after the Rethugs have largely finished destroying this country, stealing TWO SCOTUS seats, etc…..’well maybe they’re Democrats.’ Really, imbecile? Is that all you got? Up the troll game, Misha, or Vlad the Impaler will ship your worthless ass back to IRKUTSK!
dwes09
“What would you say if a great preponderance of them were Democrat voters?”
That they were crude and hateful, obviously!
But given the comments referring to the Bible and God’s law, as well as the comments regarding gay teachers, the meaning of marriage and so on, only a fool would imagine that would be the case.
REPUBLICANS think this way and say things like this with a much, much, greater frequency than democrats and you know it.
You guys can’t even succeed at being disingenuous!
oldpluto
One has to wonder about the parenting skills of these ‘adults?’. I see only more trouble and isms in the future with THEM pretending to raise children.
linniejr
Oldpluto, AMEN!!!
sfdalstar
Where in the HELL are the Achilles Police and FBI in this matter? – these TRUMP deplorables and Homophobes need to have their asses arrested for threatening this child and citing violence against him/her. There is absolutely no place on this planet for this kind of white trash bigotry and abuse.
This enrages me and sickens me to no end.
Wayne_in_NYC
Birds of a feather flock together. They’re probably some of the posters, sharing the same values, or lack of them!
Bearinphx
I TOTALLY AGREE and the district attorney needs to get involved… glcall child
Protective services and get that child
Out of harms way. This is SICKENING…. I say execute the parents if they child is harmed in any way.
linniejr
sfdalstar, I agree with you 1000%. There are so many federal violations that it’s not funny. Because of the nature of these threats, yes, the FBI should have immediately been called in!! Shame on this school system for being slow to act as well as the state needs to step in, Republican or not, right it right and wrong is wrong.
@katz432
Just goes to show..
valentino888
The South… It’s spoken for itself the last 200+ years, and most certainly the last two. Racism and homophobia are their favorite things, next to guns, warped religion and willful lack of education. It’s time we cut the PC crap and just tell it like it is. The South has long been our enemy and we need to fight it. Especially this coming election. Gay people need to leave southern states and be free. I was subject to filthy redneck Bakersfield for 12 horrific years. The city is completely made up of southerners who, unfortunately, invaded there during The Great Depression (and never left). It’s our ugly secret here in California; the deep South right between L.A. and San Francisco. We need to start being honest about it. Stop biting our tongues over the obvious.
Mick406
Last time I checked, Oklahoma was FAR from the South.
Lacuevaman
F you. you have no idea about the”south”. another vapid sissy queen….geeze.
jsmu
@Mick406 Last time I checked, you cretin, Oklahoma was JUST NORTH OF TEXAS–ANYTHING BUT FAR FROM THE SOUTH.
batesmotel
The South? Did you flunk geography?
gayjim1969
The Mid-West isn’t far behind the South in their backward ways of thinking and confusing ignorance for tradition.
Brian
OK, armchair geography geniuses. The original poster made a fair claim. Check out a map of Achille – one of the last tiny towns before the Texas border. That’s solidly inside the former Confederacy, solidly in slave territory. That’s the history and culture that he’s referring to, and it contributes to today’s bigotry.
That’s also USDA Plant Hardiness zone 7 or 8, where farmers can plant a hell of a lot more than in the north. Bet they’re having a rough summer – it’s been in triple digits! Maybe you should go visit it so that you could learn something. These comments show so much stupidity.
This story absolutely rings of hatred and ignorance, and we need to address how that begins. This is their culture, and it’s not OK. As mad as I am, all of these puns are intentional.
russdog
These are the same types of evil cowards who brought their children to witness lynchings during the last century as they cheered on the destruction of anything their small minds couldn’t understand or accept as the slightest bit different. They’re so afraid of what “we” will become if “allow” anything non-hetero to exist that they can’t see that they’ve already become the monsters.
Mick406
Agree. Couldn’t understand how or why a parent back in those days would want their children to witness such a deplorable event. I bet they channeled President Trump in the future and decided that’s what he wanted them to do. And all those parents just HAD to be Republicans!!!
jsmu
@Mick406 Get the blue blazes off this gay site, you impotent little Russkytroll.
dwes09
“And all those parents just HAD to be Republicans!!!”
I wouldn’t expect regressives to know anything about history except the most basic myths. And BINGO! you don’t. Back in the day the Republican party was the progressive one, and the Democratic party was regressive. Around the turn of the 20th century the parties were changed places as Northern democrats realized racism and xenophobia were a dead end, and unions were a wave of the future.
The regressives moved to the Republican party over a generation, and the last of them (the Southern Democrats) left by the 60’s when it was clear they would no longer have any influence.
So in the heyday of lynchings the participants would have been democrats. Now however it is beyond question that they would be republicans. Not saying all republicans would stand for that kind of savagery, but it is certainly from your ranks that kind of savagery would come now.
Bearinphx
Someone call child
Protective services NOW!!!!!!!
BCbreeze
On the parents that would allow a 12 year old child to do something like this. It is disgusting that parents allow children to decide what gender they are. They are setting up these children to have such a hard childhood. So yes, someone need to call child protected services NOW!!! And these children should be removed from these sick parents.
Bearinphx
Someone call child protective services NOW!!!
Bearinphx
If the editor of this column Dan Tracer has time enough to post this article then he has time enough to contact child
Protective services to help this child. If this child is harmed or named in ANY WAY I hope the district attorney sued the hell out of this paper, and asks for the death penalty for the parents.
GetOffMyInternets
Umm. You do realize this has already gone viral before Queerty reported it, right? Did you even bother to crosscheck other news sources to show evidence supporting what Dan wrote? Google is amazing (the story again, went VIRAL) and it’s so cute that you think a website that specializes in clickbait and celebrity male bulges, is Time magazine or anything close to the Washington Post. Did you even read the first paragraph where it said that the school district is in lockdown? In the time that it took for you to skim the article missing key points, and then laying it on Dan’s shoulders in comments did YOU call? Probably not,
GetOffMyInternets
Excuse me, not lockdown, but the tiny school district was shut down and classes cancelled out of safety?
Sebastian
How ‘bout they pick on someone their own age, if they can! They all have got to be the most pathetic THINGS in the world if they think making death threats to a 12-year-old, just ‘cause she used a girl’s bathroom, is considered hilarious to them!!!
Bearinphx
How
Come authorities are not involved here????
greybat
They do pick on people their own age. It’s just that this week they chose to target a child.
I read on another Site that they all have Criminal Records, mostly Assault and Battery.
Juanjo
The people involved in this have been identified and outed on social media. I have a feeling that life is going to become unpleasant for some of them.
ErinNicole
https://www.facebook.com/ty.hays.14
https://www.facebook.com/ty.hays.14
Those are two of their Facebook profiles if you want to let them know what you think
ErinNicole
https://www.facebook.com/gina.segraves.7
Lacuevaman
education….patience… education… or maybe, were can set our hair on fire, clutch our pearls and see no future. education….ONWARD!
ShowMeGuy
Every one of those fauxmericans should have their American Flag sunshields removed from the back windows of their pickup trucks.
Doug
The majority of these miserable POS’s have taken down their Facebook pages, which isn’t surprising at all. The ones that haven’t have made their posts private. These are some really disgusting people. I’m wondering how much of their comments the child has read.
djmcgamester
This is all so screwy. It’s no wonder a restaurants in NYC are switching to “WC” which are single person restrooms. That said, NYC law allows for a person to use a restroom based on gender identity rather than sex at birth.
silveroracle
Over in the UK we’ve had the single person restrooms in a lot of places for some time and because of this, there isn’t that issue.
QueerTruth
Please continue to publically shame the monsters who would cyber bully and threaten a child.
Please go to each of their Facebook pages, get their photo and publish that with their comments. I’m tired of this. If you want to be a bullying bigot online- ok, then we are going to publish their face and location for the world to see who they really are.
rbernard?
When I read a story like this, I am so glad I am happily gay, live amongst the enlightened, and not part of those hateful superstitious sourpusses in Oklahoma.
That kid needs to get out of that backwards thinking state as soon as she is legally able and head to the west coast or the New England states.
hera94
Achille is a microscopic town with a population of less than 500. In fact, I didn’t even know that it existed until today. Please don’t assume that all of Oklahoma is this backwards.
Virpilosus
Adults threatening children is always extremely disturbing and ought to be confronted and dealt with clearly and quickly to protect the young and innocent.
woodroad34
Way to prove that straights are soooo much better and moral than gays. These people are a bunch of mudworms.