Utah State’s Board of Education voted to censure one of its members on Wednesday over a recent social media post in which she questioned a teenage girl’s gender, resulting in online harassment and attacks against the girl.
In a statement on Wednesday, the board wrote that the member, Natalie Cline, will be barred from attending board meetings and stripped of her committee assignments. While the board has no power or authority to unseat an elected official , it also urged Cline to resign from her position by Feb. 19.
The censure decision follows an investigation into a controversial Facebook post from Cline last week, in which she shared a flyer of a high school girls basketball team that included a photo. In the caption, Cline wrote “Girls’ basketball…” — implying that the teenage girl in the photo was transgender.
The post, which has now been taken down, garnered hateful comments in which users attacked the teenager in the photo and discussed personal information about her. The harassment that the girl received was so severe that she needed police protection, according to the Salt Lake Tribune .