Английская Википедия:Death of Nex Benedict

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Nex Benedict (January 11, 2008 – February 8, 2024) was a 16-year-old non-binary American student who died after a fight at their high school on February 7, 2024. Benedict, who had previously been bullied at school, told police they were beaten by three younger girls in the girls restroom at Owasso High School in Owasso, Oklahoma. Nex died the following day. Шаблон:As of, the cause of their death has not yet been established with final autopsy and toxicology reports still pending. The initial medical examiner's report said Benedict did not die as a result of trauma, according to Owasso police.

Background

Nex Benedict was born in 2008 in El Paso, Texas, and raised in Owasso. Nex's parents are Walter and Sue Benedict. Sue Benedict is Nex's grandmother who raised Nex since they were two months old and adopted them in 2022. Nex had four sisters and two brothers. Nex's mother is enrolled in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Death

According to Benedict's 21-minute interview with a police officer, recorded on his body camera at Bailey Medical Center in Owasso at 4 p.m. on February 7, Benedict told him that they had been "jumped" in the school bathroom. The officer already knew Benedict due to being a school resource officer, and Benedict, along with some fellow sophomore friends, had previously been caught with a vape pen, for which Benedict was being punished with a week of in-school detention. It was in detention that Benedict said they first encountered the freshmen girls who Benedict fought on February 7 after Benedict said the girls had been "antagonizing" them about the way they dressed.Шаблон:Or

Benedict added that after stacking chairs in the school cafeteria, they and their friends went into the nearby girls' bathroom. There they encountered the three freshmen girls who Benedict said had been hassling them. Benedict said to the officer that both sides only spoke and laughed with each other but then one of the freshmen girls said “something like, ‘Why do they laugh like that?’” Benedict then went up to the girls and threw water at them from a plastic bottle. Benedict told the officer:

“And so I went up there and I poured water on them, and then all three of them came at me. They came at me. They grabbed on my hair. I grabbed onto them. I threw one of them into a paper towel dispenser and then they got my legs out from under me and got me on the ground, started beating the shit out of me. And then my friends tried to jump in and help. But I'm not sure; I blacked out.”

The school issued a statement on February 20, 2024, saying the students involved were in the restroom for less than two minutes and the "physical altercation" was broken up by other students who were present in the restroom and a staff member who was supervising outside of the restroom. The school said all students “walked under their own power” to the nurse, where they were given a health assessment, and to the assistant principal's office, where statements were taken and parents/guardians contacted. School administration stated that an ambulance was not called but “out of an abundance of caution,” they advised an unnamed student's parent to take them to a medical facility for further evaluation.

Sue Benedict said she was informed that Nex was suspended for school for two weeks due to the fight. On her own, Sue then took Nex to a nearby hospital for an exam and summoned the Owasso Police Department at around 3:30 p.m (CT). A school resource officer came to the emergency room and discussed the situation with the Benedicts for 21 minutes. He told them that should they choose to file a criminal complaint, both sides could be charged with assault, with Benedict being treated as the primary aggressor for originally throwing the water. The officer said they should sleep on it and he would gladly pursue the case if they changed their minds the next day.

Benedict was discharged later that day, and reportedly went to sleep with a sore head.

The following day, on February 8, as they were preparing to travel with their grandmother for an appointment, Benedict collapsed in the family's living room. Sue Benedict called 911. Benedict had stopped breathing by the time EMTs arrived. Benedict was declared dead at the hospital that evening.

Investigation

In a statement to The Advocate, Dan Yancy, Owasso Police Chief, said that "no report of the incident was made to the Owasso Police Department prior to the notification at the hospital." Investigations by the Owasso Police Department to determine the events that led to Benedict's death are ongoing. Шаблон:As of, police are awaiting toxicology and autopsy results from the local medical examiner's office before determining whether anyone will be charged. Law enforcement conducted interviews with school staff and students with all findings sent to the Tulsa County District Attorney's Office.

On February 21, a police department spokesperson said that hallway video from inside the school, showing Benedict before and after the incident, has been reviewed by investigators and will be released "at some point". On February 23, the Owasso police released footage from school surveillance cameras, officer worn body cameras, and audio of the 911 calls made by Sue Benedict on February 7 and 8.

The Owasso Police Department said that initial autopsy information showed that the death was not trauma-related, though this is disputed. Nick Boatman, a spokesperson for the Owasso Police Department, said in a statement to Popular Information that the medical examiner had not explicitly said that the Benedict's death was unrelated to the head injuries. The Benedict family is privately investigating the incident, also stating there were other facts not publicly available.

Aftermath

In a letter to parents, Owasso Public Schools said it would be increasing the number of security personnel within the district, updating their safety drills and rules, and providing counseling services for students affected by the death.

Reactions

Although Benedict's cause of death has not yet been determined to have been caused by the attack, at least one LGBTQ advocacy group, Freedom Oklahoma, has described the reported attack that preceded Benedict's death as a possible hate crime. A hotline run by the Indianapolis-based Rainbow Youth Project was reported as receiving over 200 calls from Oklahoma in the weekend following Benedict's death, more than three times the usual amount, with many mentioning Benedict's death, and most reporting having been bullied themselves.

Chuck Hoskin Jr., the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, spoke out about Benedict's death, “The facts relating to Nex’s death are not yet fully clear,” Hoskin said, adding: “The more we learn about Nex’s life, the more we come to know a wonderful child whose experience and identity mattered and was worth celebrating. Above all, Nex deserved to live a full life.” Vice President Kamala Harris said that "her heart goes out to Nex Benedict's family" and that she stood with LGBTQ+ youth.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issued a statement linking the attack on Benedict with Oklahoma Senate Bill 615, a law passed by the state legislature that required multi-occupation restrooms in public schools or public charter schools in Oklahoma to be for the exclusive use of either the male or the female sex, "as designated on individuals' original birth certificates". LGBT activists and advocacy groups have linked the death to rhetoric spread by Chaya Raichik on her Libs of TikTok social media accounts, including an event prior to Benedict's attack in which a video featuring one of Benedict's teachers was shared by Raichik. This came in the wake of Raichik's appointment to the Oklahoma Department of Education's Library Media Advisory Committee by Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction, in January 2024. Walters later defended Oklahoma's anti-LGBT policies in an interview with The New York Times regarding Benedict's death, saying: "There's not multiple genders. There's two. That's how God created us." He called their death "a tragedy" while accusing the radical left of exploiting Benedict for political gain.

During a Legislative Update panel in Tahlequah, Oklahoma on February 23, which consisted of four Republican state senators, an audience member asked why the Oklahoma Legislature has "such an obsession with the LGBTQ citizens of Oklahoma and what people do in their personal lives and how they raise their children," and linked Benedict's death to "50 bills targeting the LGBTQ community". Senator Tom Woods responded that his "heart goes out" in regards to Benedict's death, while asserting that Oklahoma is a "religious," "Christian," and "moral" state whose constituency "doesn't want that filth in Oklahoma". Michael Stopp, moderator of the forum and chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee, said that the death was "terrible" but claimed media coverage of it was "blown out of proportion".

After city police claimed the death was not related to the altercation, multiple activists and groups called for an independent or federal investigation, including the Human Rights Campaign and Representative Ritchie Torres.