In the American state of Oklahoma, a commotion has arisen after the death of 16-year-old Nex Benedict, who identified as non-binary and was beaten up by older girls in the toilets at school. The teenager had been bullied for more than a year, it turned out. It has reignited fear in the LGBTQ+ community.
16-year-old Nex Benedict died on February 8, a day after a fight with three older girls at Owassa High School in the US state of Oklahoma. “The students were in the toilets for less than two minutes and the fight was broken up by other students who were present,” the school said in a statement. “Just like a staff member who kept an eye on everything outside the toilets.”
The brawl, which also involved another transgender student, left Benedict with numerous head injuries. The teenager was allegedly thrown to the ground and hit in the head several times. The ambulance was not called afterwards because the injuries were minor, the school reports and mother Sue Benedict confirms. It wasn’t until the next day that Nex suddenly collapsed at home. Paramedics determined the teen had stopped breathing and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
An autopsy on the body showed that the injuries sustained during the fight did not lead to Benedict’s death. The public prosecutor’s office announced this. What was going on has not been disclosed. In any case, no arrests have been made yet.
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Human rights groups are calling for a thorough investigation into what happened at the school. The teenager’s mother also demands this and has already appointed an agency for an independent investigation. In an interview with The Independent, she said her teenager had been bullied at the school for more than a year. That started a few months after Governor Kevin Stitt ratified a controversial law that only allows students to use the bathroom at school of the gender listed on their birth certificate. The police started an investigation.
Since the law came into effect, there have been several incidents and human rights groups report that many members of the LBGTQ+ community are living in fear.
