Background: Trans-rights activists protest outside the House chamber at the Oklahoma Capitol before the State of the State address, Feb. 6, 2023, in Oklahoma City (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File). Inset: Nex Benedict (via GoFundMe).
Authorities are investigating the death of a 16-year-old nonbinary student in Tulsa who died just one day after a fight in the high school bathroom the student was required by law to use. Nex Benedict was beaten, suffered facial bruises and head injuries from the fight, then died from their injuries. Benedict’s mother said her child had been bullied for over a year because of their gender identity.
The Owasso Police Department said in a statement Tuesday that on Feb. 7, an unnamed student was involved in a “physical altercation” at Owasso High School West Campus near Tulsa, Oklahoma. The department said that it received no report by the school, and that it is still unknown whether the student’s death is related to the incident at the school. Autopsy and toxicology results are still being processed.
Although it has not been officially reported that the fight related to the student’s bathroom use, school bathrooms have been a major issue in Oklahoma and other states.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, signed SB 615 into law in May 2022, advancing the state’s conservative agenda and further restricting the rights of transgender individuals. Oklahoma also banned gender-affirming care for minors and restricted transgender participation in sports.
SB615 applied to students from pre-K through 12th grade at public and public charter schools in the state, and required all students to use the restroom that corresponds with the gender listed on their birth certificates or else use a single-occupancy restroom provided by the school. Schools that failed to comply, by allowing transgender students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity, would be subject to a decrease in state funding.
Nex’s mother Sue Benedict told The Independent that her child reported that they and a transgender student at Owasso High School had been in a fight with three older girls in a girls bathroom in which Benedict was knocked to the ground and hit their head.
According to the mother, the school failed to call an ambulance or police, but did inform her that Nex would be suspended for two weeks. Benedict said she took her child to a local medical center for treatment on the day of the fight and were discharged. Benedict said Nex went to bed that night with a sore head, but collapsed the next morning in the family’s living room. She said she called an ambulance and when EMT officers arrived, Nex had stopped breathing; Nex died that night at the hospital.
The Owasso Public Schools released a statement on Feb. 20 saying that it “has cooperated fully” with the local police department’s investigation of the student’s death, and that the district initially limited statements on the incident in an effort to protect the family’s confidentiality and the integrity of the investigation.
Noting that “speculation and misinformation surrounding the case has intensified” following the event, the district issued a lengthy statement in which it denied wrongdoing and noted that its public statement “doesn’t change the facts that a fight occurred on school grounds and a student passed away the next day.”
Per the school’s comments, students were in a restroom for “less than two (2) minutes” when a physical altercation was broken up by other students and a staff member. All those involved “walked under their own power to the assistant principal’s office and nurse’s office,” where administrators began taking statements, contacting parents, and performing health assessments.
The district said that its standard safety protocols were followed, and that after a school nurse determined that ambulance service was not required, “out of an abundance of caution, it was recommended to one parent that their student visit a medical facility for further examination.” The school said that as always, it encouraged parents to file a police report if they felt it was appropriate.
“Physical altercations between students are unacceptable,” the statement continued. “Any student/s engaging in such action, jeopardizing the safety of others, will receive disciplinary consequences.”
It also specifically said that federal privacy laws prohibit the disclosure of disciplinary action taken against a student, but said, “Any notion that the district has ignored disciplinary action toward those involved is simply untrue.” The school invited students to reach out to teachers or staff for support and expressed condolences to the family and community.
Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, said Wednesday in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the teen was not a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, but did live on the Cherokee reservation. Hoskin said he asked local authorities to assist the Owasso Police Department in its investigation of Nex’s death and said Nex was “a wonderful child whose experience and identity mattered and was worth celebrating.”
Nex’s mother posted a statement on a GoFundMe page that has raised over $56,000 for the family’s expenses. Benedict said in the post that initially, Nex’s name was listed differently on the page. She wrote:
We at this time are thankful for the ongoing support and did not expect the love from everyone. We are sorry for not using their name correctly and as parents we were still learning the correct forms. Please do not judge us as Nex was judged, please do not bully us for our ignorance on the subject. Nex gave us that respect and we are sorry in our grief that we overlooked them. I lost my child, the headstone will have correct name of their choice. The rest of monies will go to other children dealing with the right to be who they feel they are, in Nex Benedict’s name. God bless.
Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU of Oklahoma released a joint statement that called the assault on Nex, “an inevitable result of the hateful rhetoric and discriminatory legislation targeting Oklahoma trans youth.”
“We challenged Oklahoma’s law requiring schools to discriminate against students like Nex because we believe every student should have the safe and affirming environment they need to thrive, and policies that put transgender students in danger make schools less safe places for all students,” the organizations continued, referring to a 2022 federal lawsuit filed on behalf of three transgender students challenging the constitutionality of SB 615.
The organizations said they remain “deeply troubled by reports the school failed to respond appropriately to the altercation that preceded Nex’s death and demand a thorough, open investigation into the matter,” and pledged to keep fighting for the equality and safety of Oklahomans.
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