In response to the death of, a tenth grader, the US Department of Education announced on Friday that it is initiating an inquiry into whether an Oklahoma school district “failed to appropriately respond to alleged harassment,” as stated in a department letter. Nex Benedict, whose friends and family claim to be nonbinary, passed away on February 8, the day after telling their family they had gotten into a fight with other Owasso High School students. It’s unclear if or how Nex’s death was influenced by the fight. Although the cause of their death is still unknown, police said an early autopsy revealed they did not die from trauma. Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, filed a complaint on February 21 alleging a “failure of Owasso High School to address documented instances of bullying, violence, and harassment” and asking federal education officials to look into “the circumstances leading to the death of Nex Benedict.” The Department of Education stated in a letter to the Human Rights Campaign that while looking into claims of harassment at Owasso Public Schools, it will be examining whether or not it complied with Title IX sex-based discrimination protections and Title II disability discrimination protections. Officials from Owasso Public Schools said that they were informed about the investigation on Friday.

A spokesperson for Owasso Public Schools, Brock Crawford, stated in a statement on Friday that “the district is committed to cooperating with federal officials and believes the complaint submitted by HRC is not supported by the facts and is without merit.” The investigation is “an important step toward ensuring that all students in Owasso Public Schools can learn free from discrimination or harassment,” according to a statement released on Friday by Rep. Mark Pocan, the chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus. Multiple vigils were held in Nex’s honor across the United States following his death, which garnered national attention. Advocates blamed the incident on an increasingly hostile environment towards the LGBTQ+ community. Following a brawl between two student groups in the school bathroom, a police officer is seen speaking with the adolescent and their guardian in a hospital on body camera footage from February 7 that the Owasso Police Department made public.

Nex Benedict: what happened to him? 

Prior to the altercation on February 7, Nex Benedict and other students were stacking chairs after lunch, according to police and school officials. Benedict can be seen entering and exiting a restroom adjacent to the cafeteria at roughly the same time as multiple other students in security camera footage. Benedict later disclosed to a school resource officer that they and their friends had been annoyed by a group of girls they were unaware of because of the way they laughed and dressed. Benedict explained that the water was from a bottle and said, “So I went up there and I poured water on them, and then all three of them came at me.” When Benedict blacked out, the girls pounced and began beating them up, according to Nex Benedict. 

The officer explained to Benedict as he lay in the hospital bed that because the teen squirted the other students with water, he might also be charged with assault. Later on, Benedict was discharged from the hospital. Sue Benedict reported the teenager’s breathing difficulties to 911 the following day. Nex Benedict passed away shortly after. The following day, the school announced that a student had passed away, but they withheld the student’s name and any other information. Except for a few local news outlets reporting that a student had passed away, not much attention was given to the announcement.

“I was bullied almost daily, consistently.” 

Benedict’s life and death have garnered significant attention, bringing Owasso and its public high school—which enrolls close to 3,000 students—to light. Situated fifteen minutes north of Tulsa, the roughly 40,000-person city has grown rapidly from a small town with a few stop signs to a commuter hub.A number of current and former Owasso students told The Oklahoman, a USA TODAY Network publication, that they could relate to Benedict’s story because it reminded them of their own experiences. They talked about being repeatedly harassed and bullied because of their sexual orientation and gender identity, and they frequently believed that administrators did not act appropriately in these situations. “I was bullied pretty much every day, consistently,” transgender 20-year-old Ren Stolas stated. “That’s why there’s a little extra pain here.”

2018 Owasso graduate Aren Deakins claimed that he was once cornered by other students who demanded to see his genitalia. Deakins uses the pronouns it and he and identifies as queer. He said, “I felt threatened, even though I wasn’t a threat, and the school said I could change lunch times.” When Landon Wood was a sophomore in Owasso in 2018, he said he thought the administration did not do enough to keep him safe. Transgender Wood is 24 years old. He said that Owasso was the worst public high school he had ever attended out of all the ones he attended in northeastern Oklahoma. He claimed that other students had once questioned him about the restroom he was using. He said that school administrators did not take any action to ensure that teachers used his correct name.  He declared, “You lose your privacy.” “It’s impossible to truly let go of who you once were.

“A school spokesman, Brock Crawford, stated that the school looks into every report of bullying, but he did not address the experiences that Wood, Deakins, and other students shared. “As a district, the safety and security of our students is our top priority, and we are committed to fostering a safe and inclusive environment for everyone,” he wrote in a message. “Bullying in any form is unacceptable.” Crawford refused to say if, in reaction to Benedict’s passing, school administrators had taken any additional anti-bullying steps. According to him, at the beginning of each school year, administrators go over the anti-bullying policy with the students and instruct them on how to report bullying. However, senior Juan Pablo Alvarez, 17, claimed that neither morning announcements nor instructors’ discussions about bullying in the classroom are frequent. He remarked, “To be honest, I just wish they would talk about bullying more because it’s a big problem.”

Oklahoma enacts legislation limiting LGBTQ students’ rights

Children are finding it more difficult to understand their rights at school due to an increasing number of anti-trans laws and policies, according to Megan Lambert, the legal director for the ACLU of Oklahoma. Lambert stated, “They still have the right to be treated equally before the law.” “That remains true irrespective of any actions taken by the state legislature or state education board.” State legislators prohibited transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams in addition to the bathroom ban law. Walters has been the most outspoken advocate for the new regulations and guidelines. The state Board of Education voted in January to require schools to get board approval before changing a student’s gender in official records. Walters said at that meeting, “We’re not going to tolerate the woke Olympics in our schools, left-wing ideologues trying to push in this radical gender theory.

” In the same month, he appointed Chaya Raichik, an internet celebrity who manages the far-right social media account Libs of TikTok, to the advisory board for state school libraries. In 2022, Raichik took issue with videos that an Owasso High School teacher had shared on social media. The teacher claimed that as a result, he was harassed and had to quit the school. Tyler Wrynn, the instructor, went back to Owasso to give a speech at the vigil for Nex Benedict. The teenager enjoyed joking, “I’m going to fight you,” Wrynn said, but he would always alter the explanation. It was over Wrynn’s sports car one day. It was time to leave Wrynn’s class again. Tyler Wrynn, the instructor, went back to Owasso to give a speech at the vigil for Nex Benedict. The teenager enjoyed joking, “I’m going to fight you,” Wrynn said, but he would always alter the explanation. It was over Wrynn’s sports car one day. It was time to leave Wrynn’s class again.