It was a brutal and violent death that caused a wave of emotion in the United States. The US Department of Education has launched an investigation into the death of a 16-year-old student who identifies as non-binary, with LGBT+ rights groups denouncing the case as “harassment and discrimination” ignored by the school.
Nex Benedict, who died on February 8, a day after a fight in the girls’ restroom at his high school in Owasso, Oklahoma, used the gender-neutral pronoun “he” but also the masculine “he.” New York TimesQuoting the student’s friends.
A survey to understand the role of school authorities
The cause of death is not yet known. But the NGO Human Rights Campaign (HRC) reported that Nex suffered “violent and repeated head trauma during the attack”. In a video released by police last week and filmed at a hospital, Nex Benedict tells an officer that he threw water on three girls who were insulting him because of his clothes. Nax Benedict and three other students then fought.
A student died shortly after being brutally attacked at his high school in Oklahoma, a conservative state in the southern United States, the HRC association condemned in a February 21 letter asking the Ministry of Education to launch an investigation. In response, he announced an “investigation” targeting local school authorities on Friday to determine whether they had “responded appropriately to allegations of sexual harassment”.
Protecting students from “harassment and discrimination”.
HRC welcomed the announcement in a press release. Kelly Robinson, president of the NGO, said Nex Benedict’s loved ones and the Oklahoma LGBT+ community “are still waiting for answers after this tragic death.” She called on the department to “take urgent action to ensure justice for Nex and to ensure that all students at Owasso High School and all schools across Oklahoma are safe from bullying, harassment and discrimination.”
“Nex’s death is a natural consequence of the rising tide of hatred against LGBTQ+ people,” HRC said in its February letter, particularly in conservative states. Citing her family, the NGO claims the student’s bullying began after Oklahoma passed a law banning transgender and non-binary people from entering bathrooms that match their identities. which they refer to.
