Police in are looking into what caused the death of a student following a school bathroom brawl that might have resulted from harassment over their gender identity.
16-year-old Nex Benedict identified as nonbinary and died after a fight in their high school’s bathroom this week.
No one knows what sparked off the fight yet but Nex’s family has said that there was bullying because they were nonbinary.
Nex went to Owasso High School near Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, and used the pronouns they/them. After the fight on February 7, Nex was able to walk out of the bathroom but ended up in hospital. They were allowed home that same night, but tragically passed away the next day after returning to hospital.
“What we’re really waiting on is the cause of death, and, of course, we need the toxicology report and the autopsy from the medical examiner’s office for that,” said policeman Nick Boatman who explained that officers were speaking with school staff and students to shed light on events.
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Nex’s mum, Sue, has spoken to The Independent about the injuries her child suffered, which included several facial bruises after getting into a scuffle with three older girls in the school toilet.
“I didn’t know how bad it had gotten,” confessed Sue.
Malia Pila, the sister of Nex Benedict, called her brother a “wonderful child that impacted all of us in ways that are difficult to truly articulate in their importance.”
“We’re deeply, deeply sad about their passing,” she said in a message on Wednesday to The Associated Press.
Sue Benedict shared on a GoFundMe page for funeral costs that they were still getting used to Nex’s chosen name and pronouns.
“Please do not judge us as Nex was judged, please do not bully us for our ignorance on the subject,” she asked. “Nex gave us that respect and we are sorry in our grief that we overlooked them.”
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The Owasso police stated on Tuesday that Nex Benedict passed away on Feb. 8, the day after a fight at school. Boatman mentioned that the investigation findings will go to the district attorney to see if there should be any charges.
Boatman, when asked about possible hate crime charges, said: “All crimes and charges will be on the table.”
Owasso school officials, from a suburb near Tulsa, explained that a fight happened in a bathroom and it was stopped by students and a staff member in less than two minutes.
After a school fight, the people involved “walked under their own power to the assistant principal’s office and the nurse’s office,” and one of them was told to go see a doctor for a check-up.
The police didn’t know about the fight until the child was taken to hospital, and they made a report then. The next day, on Feb. 8, the student had to go back to the hospital and sadly died.
In Oklahoma, where Republicans lead, there have been new laws made that are tough on transgender and nonbinary people. These laws stop kids from getting medical care for gender change and say you can’t have nonbinary gender on birth certificates.
Governor Kevin Stitt has also made it law that transgender girls can’t play on girls’ sports teams and transgender kids can’t use the bathroom that matches their gender at school.
Governor Stitt and his wife, Sarah, said something about this on Wednesday.
“Sarah and I are saddened to learn of the death of Nex Benedict, and our hearts go out to Nex’s family, classmates, and the Owasso community,” he said. “The death of any child in an Oklahoma school is a tragedy – and bullies must be held accountable.”
This year, Oklahoma is considering several bills that are against trans people. These include laws to stop adults from getting gender-affirming care, not allowing school staff to use a student’s chosen pronouns if they don’t match the sex given at birth, and stopping any state laws or orders that recognise any gender other than male or female.
Ryan Walters, who is in charge of public schools in Oklahoma, has also supported policies against trans people. He faced criticism from both sides when he chose a right-wing social media influencer from New York, known for posting anti-trans comments, to be part of a state library panel. Chaya Raichik posted an edited video on her Libs of TikTok account on the X platform (which used to be called Twitter) last year. The video criticised a public school librarian in Tulsa and led to several days of bomb threats to schools in the district.
The ACLU in Oklahoma said in a statement: “Policies that discriminate and hateful rhetoric spewed by state officials against transgender youth make our schools less safe and deny youth like Nex the future they deserve,”
On Wednesday, Walters said in a statement that he was sad about the death of a student in Owasso and that he would “pray for God’s comfort for the family and the entire Owasso community.”
