“We won’t let them take you down!” one of them wrote on Instagram. “We stand strong with you! You’re an angel trying to save our kids and teachers.” Centner, an avid social media user who has long used her accounts to document her luxurious lifestyle, took effective control of the school last year in the midst of the pandemic. She told the community that the school, with prekindergarten through eighth grades, would focus on “happiness” and espouse “medical freedom.” But interviews with 21 current and former parents and teachers as well as a review of social media posts and of school documents, emails, text messages and videos show how the wealthy and well-connected Centner brought her anti-vaccination and anti-masking views into the school’s day-to-day life, turning what had been a tight-knit community into one bitterly split between those who support her views on vaccinations and those who do not. “Every afternoon I have to explain things to my child when she comes home and says, ‘How come the school says what you’re saying is not right?’” said Iris Acosta-Zobel, referring to the importance she gives at home to masking and vaccinations.