Frontier Airlines has suspended a pilot who participated in Facebook attacks on a 12-year-old transgender student in Achille, Oklahoma who identifies as female and used the girls bathroom at a local school. The pilot was identified as Kevin Bickerstaff.
RELATED: School Closed After Parents Declare ‘Hunting Season’ on 12-Year-Old Transgender Student: ‘A Good Sharp Knife Will Do the Job’
As we reported last week, Maddie had been using the staff bathroom at her old school but used the girls’ bathroom at the new school because she wasn’t sure where the staff bathroom was. She was then accused of peeping under a bathroom stall. Her mother said it was probably because she “leans very far forward to use the bathroom.”
Then the sickening threats began on a private parents’ Facebook group for the school. The parents called Maddie “it” and “thing”, suggested that her genitalia be mutilated to make her female (“a good sharp knife will do the job real quick”). One said it was “hunting season on them kind” and said there was “no bag limit.”
Wrote Frontier in a statement: “Frontier Airlines prides itself on setting an example as a respectful workplace and we do not condone discrimination. We have long-established standards of conduct, to which all employees must agree to adhere, that among other things require people to act in a professional manner and to treat each other with genuine respect and kindness.”
After Maddie’s story made national headlines, her mother Brandy Rose announced that the family was making plans to leave Oklahoma and set up a GoFundMe campaign to help them do so. The campaign had raised nearly $50,000 as of this posting.
Wrote Rose: “First, I want to say thank you to EVERYONE for all the love and support for my daughter. It has been an amazingly encouraging for her! Also, if you have reached out to me, and I haven’t reached back, please, please don’t be offended. I have received so many messages, and friend requests, it’s all so very overwhelming, not in a bad way, I’m not complaining, I promise! We LOVE all the awesome supportive messages, there’s just so many to get to, please be patient with me, and know we are so appreciative! You are all amazing, and thank you! One of the people that reached out to me started a gofundme page to help us move closer to some very dear family, in a much bigger city in Texas, that will have so many more resources for Maddie, and while I know the school district here is doing everything they can to help keep Maddie safe at school, it’s not just at school that I’m scared for her, and where we would like to move to is much more open to people like my daughter, she’d have more medical resources, and we’d be with loving, supportive family. We’ve been wanting to move there for years, but it has never been financially possible. If this fundraiser actually works, it would be life changing for our family! So, even though it’s kind of embarrassing to ask strangers for help like this, I figure anything that might help my family is worth a try. I am so grateful that this person did this for us! So, I’m going to ask that, if y’all don’t mind, would you please share this link to A Move for Maddie? I don’t know what will come from it, but if it will help get my family where we need to be, it’s worth a try. Thank you so much! For everything!”
