It was a brutal and violent death that caused a wave of emotion across the United States. The U.S. Department of Education has opened an investigation into the death of a 16-year-old student who identifies as non-binary. LGBT+ rights organizations denounce a case of “harassment and discrimination” that was ignored by the school.
Nex Benedict, who died Feb. 8, a day after an altercation in the girls' bathroom at his high school in Owasso, Oklahoma, used the gender-neutral pronoun “he” but also the masculine “he,” the New York Times reported, citing on friends of the student.
A survey to understand the role of school authorities
The causes of death are not yet known. But the NGO Human Rights Campaign (HRC) reported that Nex “suffered severe and repeated head trauma during the attack.” In a video released by police last week and filmed at the hospital, Nex Benedict tells an officer that he threw water at three girls who insulted him because of his clothing. Nex Benedict and the three other students then fought.
The student died “shortly after a brutal attack at his high school in Oklahoma,” a conservative state in the southern United States, the HRC association denounced in a February 21 letter calling on the Department of Education to investigate to initiate. In response, he announced on Friday an “investigation” aimed at local school boards to determine whether they had “responded appropriately to allegations of gender-based harassment.”
Protect students “from harassment and discrimination.”
HRC welcomed this announcement in a press release. Nex Benedict's relatives and the LGBT+ community in Oklahoma “are still waiting for answers following this tragic death,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the NGO. She called on the department to “act urgently to ensure justice for Nex and to ensure that all students at Owasso High School and all schools throughout Oklahoma are protected from bullying, harassment and discrimination.”
“Nex’s death is the natural consequence of a growing wave of hatred against LGBTQ+ people,” particularly in conservative states, HRC said in its February letter. Citing his family, the NGO claims that the student was bullied after Oklahoma passed a law banning transgender and non-binary people from accessing restrooms that match their identities.