Over the cackle of the television, they heard bangs on the door of their Fair Lawn home and the sound of screeching tires. Her mother, Debra, went outside and found egg yolks running down the side of their home, the cracked shells lying on the front porch.

The egging was one in a number of cringe-inducing incidents that Bethany Koval says she has faced since she became the subject of a bullying investigation at Fair Lawn High School and her comments criticizing Israel on Twitter were widely shared and debated. Koval complained on social media that the investigation violated her right to free speech, and many online readers agreed.

But she was unprepared for what came next. The incident drew international attention, condemnation from neighbors and shunning by her peers, in part because of her political opinions.

Citing the state’s strict anti-bullying law, Fair Lawn officials said they were forced to investigate because a student had filed a complaint of potential harassment. But legal experts, including the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, faulted the district for too broadly applying the law and contradicting the spirit of free speech.

In an interview with The Record, Koval talked about the aftermath, including the eggs tossed at her home, the times she was called Hitler, a threat of violence and the loss of friends once dear to her. She spoke in a composed and clear way that belied her age.

“I lost a few friends. Really close friends. People I have known since I was young,” Koval said.

Debra Koval appealed for understanding and peace in the community.

“I’m hoping that everybody in the community can accept what the school has found and can also understand that she is a child and that she is entitled to her own opinions on politics,” she said. “But it doesn’t dictate who she is as a person.”

The alleged bullying happened during winter break. Koval wrote on Twitter that kids in school were “talking smack” about her because of her online anti-Israel comments, and a friend asked who it was, saying she was ready to fight in behalf of Bethany. Bethany told her privately who it was, but did not publicly share any name.

The next day, she cheered on Twitter that a “pro-Israel” girl had “unfollowed” her on Twitter and used an expletive to criticize Israel. Administrators at Fair Lawn High did not bring up the other political posts that she had written about Israel, she said.

The school recently finished its investigation and found the incident was not bullying, but rather was “peer conflict.”

In January, when Koval was first called to the principal’s office, she feared she was being targeted because of her comments criticizing Israel. She recorded the conversation, posted recordings online, and wrote in detail about it on Twitter. Then news media, including The New York Times, wrote about what had happened, and it ignited a national debate on free speech.

Thousands of people, most supporting Koval, weighed in online. The high school got a flood of phone calls and emails complaining about their treatment of the teen. And the environment got tense in Fair Lawn.

At school after the story went big, Koval said she didn’t feel comfortable and sensed “aggression,” so she left early. She didn’t return for eight weeks. Koval got tutoring at the public library for her classes, and returned to school about three weeks ago, but only for morning classes.

In the immediate aftermath, she said, she was “mortified” and anxious.

“I was an emotional wreck for the first couple of days,” she said, describing how she alternated between crying and sleeping. It didn’t help, she said, that her parents seemed mad at first.

Debra Koval said she was upset initially because people in the borough — where hundreds of Israelis live — seemed divided and upset over the incident. But later, reading the tweets, she decided they were not that bad and that her daughter was just expressing her opinions.

It hurt when about 100 parents and residents rallied outside the school to express support for the administration’s actions. The protesters said the rally had nothing to do with Koval’s political views, but rather they were acting because the teenager had given out the personal information of another student who disagreed with her. Koval said she told her friend privately, but never made the information public online.

But some viewed the rally as tantamount to adults bullying a teenager. A political debate unfolded on the Facebook page for the event, and some comments were unkind.

“She is a silly stupid girl,” wrote a person using the name Shari Vol, knocking the teen’s political views.

Another man, Fair Lawn parent Lior Cohen, called her “stupid” for her opinions, wrote that she was a bully, and claimed she had a “terrorist organization supporting her.” “When u hate for no reason you need to be punished and your place is in prison!!” he wrote online.

The organizer of the rally and other parents claimed that the school had received “terrorist threats” and that parents feared for their children’s safety. But the Fair Lawn police chief said there were no threats, only people calling to express their political opinions.

“If they really oppose bullying, why did they bully me?” Koval said, referring to the adults who railed against her.

Koval said students sent her messages online that she should kill herself and calling her a Nazi. Others said they wanted to “jump her” in the parking lot, she said.

She returned to school, full |of anxiety. In class, students used to listen to her points of view |and talk to her. Now, some classmates won’t look at her and have “disgusted” expressions on their faces when she talks, she said. |One student referred to her as Hitler, she said.