It's still a sad story for this teen's family but it's not the story that activists rushed to tell us all last month. From the very beginning what was clear was that the circumstances of Nex Benedict's death were unclear. As this report from Feb. 8, the day Nex died, states, the connection between a fight at school and what happened the next day was uncertain from the start.
But not knowing what had actually happened didn't stop trans activists from framing this in the most extreme ways possible. Some examples from X:
🚨#BREAKINGNEWS Dagny Benedict a 16 year old non-binary student was beaten to death by classmates in Oklahoma. The school didn't call authorities or an ambulance. Dagney died the next day. 🚨
— Ford News (@FordJohnathan5) February 19, 2024
Thread 🧵🧵🧵
Nex Benedict
— Jeremiah Harding 🦔 (@InsanityIsFree) February 19, 2024
If rightoids were serious about protecting children, EVERY ONE OF THEM would know their name.
Ryan Walters banned books. Then Chaya Raichik targeted a teacher in Owasso, forcing Tyler Wrynn out on violent threats. Now, a child has been brutally beaten to death. pic.twitter.com/yrOU6AyDQR
16-year-old, non-binary student Nex Benedict was beaten to death by their classmates at Owasso High School in Oklahoma.
— Madeline Ryan Smith (@MadelineRyan4GA) February 19, 2024
Girls did this.
Highschool girls murdered someone in the middle of the school day in a bathroom.
Absolutely sick, demented behaviour.https://t.co/tDV9zGVqzN
may your memory be a blessing, nex.
— rain 🪬🇵🇸 (@rabid_rain) February 19, 2024
they were born in 2008. beaten to death by cis girls who thought it was their right to do so. felt emboldened to do so. felt justified in doing so. may their lives be cursed. https://t.co/SKwQOICCi4
Nex Benedict, a Cherokee/Choctaw two-spirit (trans,non-binary) child was recently beaten to death at school. Her murder was a hate crime. My heart goes out to her family and loved ones.
— RyanO (@RyanTachaama21) February 21, 2024
May she forever walk in power in the land of beautiful souls. Rest in Power Baby Girl 💙🙏🏽😢 pic.twitter.com/toz2P9XzBd
A nonbinary teenager was brutally beaten to death in a Oklahoma high school by their classmates in the school bathroom.
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) February 19, 2024
This is the inevitable result of the anti trans moral panic. pic.twitter.com/Om4bKhfc0c
A child was murdered this week by their peers at school. They were beaten to death in a violent hate crime. They were 16. There is next to ZERO coverage or outrage.
— Layne Morgan (@laynemorgan) February 20, 2024
Trans kids deserve futures. And safety. And coverage. Say something. https://t.co/YnWGCvcqQ7 pic.twitter.com/oi3xkmxhwm
Nex Benedict, a Cherokee/Choctaw two-spirit (trans,non-binary) child was recently beaten to death at school. Her murder was a hate crime. My heart goes out to her family and loved ones.
— Lakota Man (@LakotaMan1) February 20, 2024
May she forever walk in power in the land of beautiful souls. pic.twitter.com/7T1SXPZmYP
Their name was Nex. And they weren’t in a fight, they were cornered in a bathroom and beaten to death while the supervising adult outside did nothing. https://t.co/mYOvjfoGxK
— DadTheBountyHunter 🍉 (@DadBountyHunter) February 21, 2024
Your school wasn't safe for Nex Benedict, the student beaten to death for being non binary, under your watch.
— Davon (@davonmagwood) February 21, 2024
Or are your schools only safe for straight white children? https://t.co/PzYe3ZFQir
I'm barely scratching the surface here. The message that Nex was "beaten to death" and "murdered" definitely made the rounds.
On Feb. 20, the police released a statement which once again emphasized that the connection between the fight at school and Nex's death the following day was still unclear.
On February 7th, 2024, at approximately 3:30 p.m., the Owasso Police Department was summoned to a local hospital in reference to a report of a student who had been involved in a physical altercation at the Owasso High School prior to the end of school that day. No report of the incident was made to the Owasso Police Department prior to the notification at the hospital. Information was taken by a School Resource Officer who responded to the hospital. On February 8th, 2024, the Owasso Police Department was made aware that the juvenile was rushed back to a hospital where the student was pronounced dead. It is not known at this time if the death is related to the incident at the school or not. A thorough investigation is being conducted by Owasso Police Detectives who are currently awaiting an autopsy report and toxicology results.
Police would also reveal that preliminary indications were that Nex had not died as a result of physical trauma, suggesting the fight was not the cause of death.
It took more than three weeks but today the autopsy report was finally released. It says that Nex Benedict died by suicide, a result of an overdose on two medications. And now we're also learning that police suspected this was the case from the beginning.
A summary autopsy report shows 16-year-old Nex Benedict, who used they/them pronouns, had toxic levels of two drugs in their system and died of an overdose.
A complete autopsy will be released in 10 days in accordance with state law, the medical examiner’s office said.
“From the beginning of this investigation, Owasso Police observed many indications that this death was the result of suicide,” Owasso Police Department Lt. Nick Boatman said in a statement. “However, investigators did not wish to confirm that information without the final results being presented by the Oklahoma Medical Examiners Office.”
Again, it's still a tragic loss for this family and it's still possible bullying had something to do with it. But as even the NY Times points out, it's still not clear that Nex's nonbinary identity had anything to do with the fight in the school bathroom.
In the days after Nex’s death, L.G.B.T.Q. activists highlighted several new laws in Oklahoma that restrict transgender rights, including one that prohibits students from using bathrooms that do not align with their sex at birth and another that prohibits the use of gender-neutral identifications on birth certificates. Oklahoma is one of at least 23 states that prohibit gender-transition care for minors.
But it has never been clear whether Nex’s gender identity was a factor in the altercation in the school bathroom.
In the interview with a school resource officer recorded on video, Nex said the incident began when three girls in the school bathroom had made fun of Nex and their friends “because of the way that we dress.” Nex then poured water on the girls, according to the interview.
High school girls being mean to other girls because of how they dress is not exactly a new phenomenon. I'm not defending bullying but I think we all know this sort of thing happens to girls (and boys) around the country most of whom are not nonbinary.
In this particular case, as the police officer explained to Nex in the hospital the evening after the fight, the decision to pour water on the other girls escalated this beyond cattiness into a physical confrontation. But the reason we all heard about this case is because it was turned into something it wasn't by people with an obvious agenda.
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