Maddie's Story

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Published August 20, 2018

Pause for a moment and imagine yourself a twelve-year-old girl that picks up your mom’s phone to take selfies and you discover images of adults calling you a maggot, a thing, an it, and then seeing them plot having you beaten up and castrated.
 

As Maddie saw the Facebook posts her lips trembled, tears poured from her eyes, and she immediately understood why her mother had been talking to her about being safe and taking extra precautions.
 

She ran into her mother’s arms.
 

The danger was back. The danger that threatened them just two years prior had found them again. An old nightmare joined with a new one.  
 

In 2016 Maddie’s family loaded their belongings up and moved to Achille, Oklahoma seeking safety for the transgender girl, who was being beaten up at school in Sherman, Texas. For a while, things were okay at the Achille Elementary School. She had friends and played like twelve-year-old girls were supposed to do. School staff allowed the new student to use their bathroom and there were no problems. Then the first day of seventh grade arrived on August 8th in a newly remodeled school, which was unfamiliar to Maddie. She had no ideal where the staff bathroom was, so she went into the girl’s bathroom.
 

Immediately, small-town gossip Jaime Crenshaw began wagging her poisonous tongue making false claims that the twelve-year-old transgender girl was looking over the top of the bathroom stalls to peek at little girls. Crenshaw began egging on her husband and others on an unsanctioned Achille School group page on Facebook.  The malicious gossip with her claws dug into the back of a child had found an audience to incite.
 

First, the group started the slurs: maggot, it, the thing. The verbal assault was to dehumanize Maddie. That was an important factor in leading to what would come next. Human beings are taught not to kill or harm, so you must mentally prepare yourself to see something as non-human so your conscious can accept harming and killing.
 

Now Maddie was no longer a human child in their eyes. They had dehumanized her, so they could hurt her. She was maggot, it, the thing. That brought them to the point where they could actually begin discussing how to hurt Maddie. The conversation changed to having other students consistently assault Maddie until she was too scared to come to school anymore. Then things got darker and one group member suggested getting a knife and castrating Maddie. They went from having their own children harm the girl to doing the harm themselves.
 

On August 10th, Maddie’s mother Brandy Rose was confronted and verbally harassed  in the Achille Elementary School parking lot by the frothing tongue wagger’s husband Burney Crenshaw – a coward of a man known to the courts for only assaulting and threatening women and children.

During the verbal attack on Brandy, the spineless punk Burney Crenshaw made vile and threatening remarks about preteen Maddie.  
 

Fearing for her family’s safety, Brandy filed a protective order against Burney Crenshaw in Bryan County District Court.
 

From that point screenshots had appeared of the threats on Facebook and Hate Trackershad obtained them. A young man named Cody Futrell had witnessed the bullies plotting to harm Maddie and took the screenshots that would set everything into motion.

By that night, we had vetted each person involved and published our story late Friday evening.   

The weekend would be a whirlwind as the social media posts went viral and our breaking story was being viewed by three hundred thousand people.
 

While Maddie slept between her parents too afraid someone would come into her own bedroom window and hurt her, an army quietly began building around the world to come to her aid.
 

That weekend saw law enforcement from the Bryan County Sheriff’s Department to the FBI launching investigations into the threats. The sheriff meant with school officials and determined that things were so serious that the Achille school district would have a complete shut down on Monday and Tuesday in order to protect students and staff. 

After Achille ISD superintendent Rick Beene meant with Brandy and Maddie school was reopened on Wednesday. However, an additional school resource officer had been hired and local police and deputies increased area patrols. 

Beene issued a statement saying, “Our school administration takes the safety of students seriously. Private discussions on social media does not represent our school and administration. Our school believes everyone should receive safe and free education.”

Kelly Payne created the hashtag #love4maddie that would become popular on  social media and used as this story's headline.
 

Sara Cunningham of Free Moms Hugs, a Norman, OK based nonprofit that consists of affirming parents providing love and acceptance to LGBTQ2’s, contacted the school system offering assistance.
 

Cunningham’s statement reads, “We are reaching out and expressing our concerns with the Achille School District. In light of recent events, we would like to offer our resources and connections with mental health professionals, to create a time for LGBTQ sensitivity training among your board, staff and/or student body. We have seen the posts involving parents from your school district; and are more than disheartened. But, we, in our experience, have seen that so much hate and abuse stems from fear and ignorance. The tragedy is, this level of emotional torture and threats of violence ( from adults ), will undoubtedly lead to depression, mental illness and the prompting of suicidal thoughts. We, at Free Mom Hugs, believe in complete, affirming love of our LGBTQ children. We have done the research, and are prepared for a healthy, productive discussion. And to bring education to bridge this disturbing gap. We desire to bring the most basic of human rights to this particular child, their family, and other students like them. It is proven that the more a person is educated to the culture and life of another person, the more successful they are in life. There is so much to understand about the transgender child; and once educated, the fear and anxiety dissolve. I would hope we could work together in bringing this education and training to your staff. And allow understanding to trickle down to the students and their families. We are not naive enough to believe we can change everyone; but with the right resources and options, we know we can begin the process of healing.”.
 

Darius Douglas, a member of the area LGBTQ2 community, began organizing a peaceful gathering at the school to show Maddie love and support.  A group of twenty sit outside the school grounds with their mouths taped shut and holding signs showing love and support for trans kids. 

Anne Babb in Oklahoma City began a GoFundMe account to help Maddie’s family be moved to safety. They had long wanted to move to Houston where Brandy’s oldest daughter lived and where there would be more medical and social support for Maddie. That fundraiser has seen a thousand people contributing a combined $25,000 to it.

The Grand Rapids Pride Youth Group began a card and letter writing campaign to send support to Maddie. 

State and national news outlets began picking up the story, which was a bit overwhelming for the small-town family. Mama Brandy suffers a social anxiety and it’s difficult for her to communicate with people, but she had a child to protect. So, Mama Bear wasn’t having it and began speaking up for her daughter on national news media.
 

The bullies that gathered to harm Maddie got their own attention.
 

When Frontier Airlines was contacted about their pilot Kevin Lee Bickerstaff trying to get Maddie physically harmed, they suspended him pending an internal investigation.
 

Bickerstaff’s wife, a pediatrics nurse at the Oklahoma School for the Deaf took heat too, as someone called in a threat to the school, which forced them to conduct their own closure.   
 

Maddie’s experience over the past several days has made her decide she wants to be an advocate for all trans kids out there. We can expect to see more on this courageous young lady.
 

This story sees only a chapter closing, but the lives of Maddie and her wonderful family go on, but this time with the knowledge they are not alone in their journey.  By October 2018, donations exceeded fifth grand. The family is now far away from the demented little town of Achille, OK.