What happened to Nex Benedict? : NPR

In the event you or somebody could also be contemplating suicide or is in disaster, name or textual content 988 to succeed in the Suicide & Disaster Lifeline.

Final month, nonbinary teenager Nex Benedict was discovered lifeless at dwelling the day after an altercation at college, the place they were attacked by a group of their classmates in a restroom.

Benedict, a 16-year-old Indigenous one who used each he/him they usually/them pronouns according to friends and family, had been focused by bullies at their Oklahoma highschool due to their gender id, in accordance with Sue Benedict, who has been recognized in numerous media studies as both Nex Benedict’s mom or their grandmother and guardian.

“I did not know the way dangerous it had gotten,” Sue Benedict instructed The Independent.

Although the college nurse decided that ambulance service was not required following the assault on Benedict, it was really helpful that they “go to a medical facility for additional examination,” Owasso, Okla., police said.

Sue Benedict instructed Public Radio Tulsa that she took Nex to the hospital for remedy for accidents sustained within the battle, however body cam footage exhibits a police officer discouraging the household from submitting a report, saying that it could open up the household to authorized legal responsibility.

The officer added that it could be a disgrace for any of the scholars to must cope with a legal scenario for “one thing so minuscule,” although Benedict disclosed that they’d skilled bullying for a full 12 months previous to this assault.

The day after the incident, Benedict collapsed at dwelling, and was later pronounced lifeless.

Owasso Public Faculties launched a statement to the neighborhood, writing, “The lack of a pupil, a member of the Ram Household and the Owasso neighborhood, is devastating,” however mentioned it could restrict its statements “out of respect and for the confidentiality for all concerned.”

Following Benedict’s dying, neighborhood members held vigils, LGBTQ+ rights organizations issued statements, and lots of had been left questioning: What occurred to Nex Benedict?

Questions over the medical expert’s findings

In keeping with the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s workplace, Benedict died by suicide.

“From the start of this investigation, Owasso Police noticed many indications that this dying was the results of suicide,” the police division mentioned in a statement, with a abstract post-mortem report saying that Benedict died after consuming two various kinds of remedy.

Many expressed their condolences following the alleged findings, together with President Biden.

“Each younger individual deserves to have the elemental proper and freedom to be who they’re, and really feel secure and supported at college and of their communities,” Biden said in a statement following the information, including that Benedict, “a child who simply needed to be accepted, ought to nonetheless be right here with us right now.”

“In reminiscence of Nex, we should all recommit to our work to finish discrimination and deal with the suicide disaster impacting too many nonbinary and transgender kids,” the president added.

Charges of suicide are disproportionately excessive for transgender youth compared to their cisgender counterparts, however transgender folks of colour face even larger charges of suicide threat.

In a 2023 national survey on LGBTQ+ youth mental health by the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ anti-suicide group, Native/Indigenous youth LGBTQ+ constantly reported the very best suicide threat amongst racial and ethnic teams, with almost one in 4 Indigenous LGBTQ+ youth reporting makes an attempt on their very own lives.

However advocates, supporters, and even Benedict’s family have remained skeptical of the report, which is slated to be launched in full within the next 10 days. The post-mortem abstract didn’t embody the precise quantities of every remedy present in Benedict’s system.

“Moderately than enable incomplete accounts to take maintain and unfold any additional, the Benedicts really feel compelled to offer a abstract of these findings which haven’t but been launched by the Medical Examiner’s workplace, significantly those who contradict allegations of the assault on Nex being insignificant,” mentioned a press release from the Benedict household attorneys.

The discharge additionally confirmed a bit of the abstract post-mortem report, which reported that whereas Benedict didn’t maintain “deadly trauma,” they did have a number of accidents to their head, neck and torso, which the attorneys say clearly exhibits “the severity of the assault.”

“There’s nothing on this one web page doc to elucidate why the medical expert checked a field,” said Sarah-Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, on the choice to record suicide as Benedict’s reason for dying.

“Media will need to have discovered by now that they should proceed to query what they get from legislation enforcement and authorities entities in Oklahoma which have to this point failed to guard susceptible college students and responsibly present any info that’s important for pupil security,” Ellis mentioned.

Sue Benedict instructed The Independent that Nex began being bullied at college after Oklahoma’s Republican governor, Kevin Stitt, signed a invoice in 2022 that forbade trans and nonbinary youth from utilizing bogs concurrent with their gender identities.

In 2023, Stitt adopted up the lavatory ban with a ban on gender-affirming take care of trans youth within the state, certainly one of 87 anti-trans payments that handed within the U.S. final 12 months, in accordance with the Trans Legislation Tracker.

Simply three months into the present 12 months, 523 anti-trans payments have been launched in state legislatures.

And trans youth report that these authorized restrictions on their freedom are having direct impacts on their psychological well being.

In keeping with the Trevor Project’s survey, almost one in three LGBTQ+ youth mentioned their “psychological well being was poor more often than not or at all times as a consequence of anti-LGBTQ insurance policies and laws.”

The Human Rights Marketing campaign (HRC) mentioned in a statement, “We should demand higher from our elected officers and reject dangerous anti-transgender laws on the native, state and federal ranges, whereas additionally contemplating each doable technique to make ending this violence a actuality.”

What occurs subsequent?

On March 1, the U.S. Division of Schooling’s Workplace of Civil Rights (OCR) notified the Human Rights Marketing campaign that in response to an HRC grievance filed round Benedict’s dying, the workplace can be investigating the Owasso public faculty district for potential violations of Title IX, which prevents discrimination based mostly on intercourse, and Title II, which stipulates that faculties should stop bullying and harassment.

Nonetheless, the timeline for the investigation is unknown.

“The objective of an OCR investigation is to find out whether or not an alleged civil rights violation befell and to resolve what district reforms are applicable based mostly on what the investigation uncovered,” Rachel Perera, a governance studies fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote.

Whereas the OCR can withdraw federal funding from a faculty district if the investigation finds violations of civil rights legislation, “enforcement actions are uncommon,” added Perera in her written commentary.

The case might additionally probably be referred to the Division of Justice for additional motion, however what’s going to come out of the investigation and whether or not its findings might be escalated nonetheless stays to be seen.

Many are hoping that Benedict’s dying might spur additional motion that goals to discourage bullying in faculties.

“Reforms creating faculty environments which are constructed upon the pillars of respect, inclusion and style, and intention to eradicate bullying and hate, are the sorts of change that every one concerned ought to have the ability to rally behind,” mentioned the Benedict household’s counsel.

However Sue Benedict remains to be mourning her loss.

“I simply need my baby again,” she mentioned.