No Charges to Be Filed in Oklahoma School Bathroom Fight Involving Nex Benedict
Nex Benedict had allegedly been bullied for months, with the harassment starting shortly after Oklahoma passed its transgender school bathroom law.
Image via Adobe, by Irene
UPDATE MARCH 22, 2024: The Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office has decided to not file charges in connection to a school bathroom fight involving Nex Benedict the day before they died.
Benedict, 16, who identified as nonbinary, was involved in a fight with three girls in an Owasso High School bathroom. After the fight, Benedict was taken to a local hospital for examination and released that same day. The following day, they died by suicide, according to the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office.
The Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office said they don’t believe the filing of juvenile charges is warranted, reports KOCO.
UPDATE MARCH 13, 2024:
An autopsy report released on Wednesday from the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled that the probable cause of Nex Benedict’s death was suicide.
Benedict’s death was caused by the combined toxicity of two drugs, reports KOCO.
LGBTQ+ youth are at much greater risk for poor mental health. In 2021, 48% of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ+) teens considered suicide, according to the the Trevor Project. Benedict identified as nonbinary.
If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can text TALK to 741741 or initiate an online chat at suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat/. You can also call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. Additional resources can also be found at SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.
UPDATE MARCH 7, 2024:
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into Owasso Public Schools after 16-year-old Nex Benedict, a nonbinary student, died one day after a Feb. 7 physical altercation with several other students in a bathroom.
The decision to investigate the Oklahoma school district comes at the request of Human Rights Campaign (HRC), an LGBTQ+ advocacy group. The group alleges Owasso High School violated Title IX by failing to address documented instances of bullying, violence, and harassment.
HRC President Kelley Robinson wrote in a Feb. 21 letter to U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona that the group believes Nex’s death “is the natural consequence of a growing wave of hatred against LGBTQ+ people.”
In a March 1 letter to the group, OCR said it is also investigating whether the district failed to appropriately respond to alleged harassment of students under Section 504 and Title II, which require educational institutions to respond to disability-based harassment, K-12 Dive reports. The department noted that opening an investigation “in no way implies that OCR has made a determination on the merits of the complaint.”
Owasso Public Schools said it received notice of the investigation on March 1 and that the district believes “the complaint submitted by HRC is not supported by facts and is without merit.”
The Owasso Police Department, which is investigating Benedict’s death, said preliminary information from the medical examiner’s autopsy shows they “did not die as a result of trauma.” The official cause of death has not yet been determined.
Benefit’s family is seeking an independent investigation into their death.
UPDATE FEBRUARY 22, 2024:
The Owasso Police Department on Wednesday released an initial autopsy report on the death of Nex Benedict:
“While the investigation continues into the altercation, preliminary information from the medical examiner’s office is that a complete autopsy was performed and indicated that the decedent did not die as a result of trauma. At this time, any further comments on the cause of death are currently pending until toxicology results and other ancillary testing results are received. The official autopsy report will be available at a later date.”
OWASSO, Okla. – Sixteen-year-old Nex Benedict was beaten by three older female students in an Owosso High School bathroom on February 7 and died the following day. Benedict was non-binary and identified as they/them.
Details of the altercation are murky. Owasso Public Schools released the following initial timeline of the incident:
- On the afternoon of Wednesday, February 7, 2024, a physical altercation occurred in a restroom at the Owasso High School West Campus.
- Students were in the restroom for less than two (2) minutes and the physical altercation was broken up by other students who were present in the restroom at the time, along with a staff member who was supervising outside of the restroom.
- Once the altercation was broken up, all students involved in the altercation walked under their own power to the assistant principal’s office and nurse’s office.
District administrators began taking statements from the students present in the restroom and began contacting parents/guardians of the students involved in the physical altercation. - Following district protocols, each of the students involved in the altercation was given a health assessment by a district registered nurse. Per district protocols, students needing further support are transported to a medical facility either by ambulance or by a parent/guardian, depending on the severity of the injuries and preference of the parent/guardian.
- While it was 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 New York Post is reporting that Benedict suffered bruising and cuts across their face. One parent said her daughter saw Benedict’s assailants “beating her head across the floor,” which appears to contradict the description of the severity of the incident provided by the school district.
Benedict’s grandmother, who was their guardian, took the teen to the local emergency room after the altercation. The teen was released from the hospital a short while later but returned the following day after becoming ill and collapsing, reports the Advocate. They died that night.
Authorities are waiting for the toxicology report to determine the victim’s cause of death.
According to texts sent from Benedict to a family member before they were admitted a second time to the hospital, they were nauseous and dizzy, believing they might have a concussion, reports Fox23.
In the texts, Benedict also said the girls who assaulted them were bullying them and their friends, who were also non-binary. “I got tired of it so I poured some water on them and all 3 came after me,” the victim said.
The bullying of Benedict had been going on for months and started in earnest at the start of the 2023 school year, which was only a few months after Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed SB 615 into law that required public school students to use restrooms that match the sex listed on their birth certificates, reports the Independent.
LGBTQ+ rights groups are blaming Oklahoma’s new law for the assault on Benedict.
“The assault on Nex is an inevitable result of the hateful rhetoric and discriminatory legislation targeting Oklahoma trans youth,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement.
Sue Benedict, the teen’s mother, said she didn’t realize how bad the bullying of her child had gotten.
“I said ‘you’ve got to be strong and look the other way, because these people don’t know who you are’,” the mother told The Independent.
She also expressed remorse for her and her family not using the pronouns her child wanted to use as their identifier, reports KAKE.
“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.”
In addition to awaiting the autopsy, Owasso PD is also interviewing school staff and other students about the altercation. Once their investigation is done, they will determine if charges will be filed.
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About the Author
Robin Hattersley, Editor-in-Chief
Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.
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This is sad, for sure! Bullying remains too common in schools and staff needs to be more aware and more in touch with its students. Also, the term, “they” in this article implies several or all (died). This is misleading and confuses communication.
It is common for persons identiying as “nonbinary”, to use the pronoun “they” rather than “he” or “she.”
I struggle with the tragic situation related to this very volatile issue in a school environment. At these ages ANY difference in ANY student is a target. However, what really concerns me is that apparently the choice of trans gender is now designated as an official “disability”??? “In a March 1 letter to the group, OCR said it is also investigating whether the district failed to appropriately respond to alleged harassment of students under Section 504 and Title II, which require educational institutions to respond to disability-based harassment, K-12 Dive reports.”
ALL persons should have the sovereign right to decide their own values/identity, however, until all facilities can be converted to ONLY individualized bathroom facilities, there is a restricted access location which bullies can use in their fear-fueled hatred. School restrooms should be equipped with Thermal ONLY cameras, which only show the movment of heat blobs, no visual detail, and do not actually violate privacy requirements.
Respectfully submitted for thought provoking discussions which might help minimize any other child being hurt.