21 February 2024 , 11:38
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A non-binary student has died after a group of girls allegedly beat the 16-year-old's head across the school bathroom floor.
Nex Benedict, 16, died a day after the bullies carried out the deadly attack, according to reports. The teenager was killed earlier this month, a day after they and another student were badly beaten, left with with bruises over their face and eyes.
Nex was brutally attacked along with a trans student, understood to be a friend, and died in hospital less than 24 hours later. The attack happened at Owasso High School in Tulsa on February 7. Police investigating the death say no 911 call was made by the school, who have so far refused to comment.
Her grandmother said that Nex was bullied for being gender fluid and was set upon by the girls during a break in the bathroom. Guardian Sue Benedict described them as a straight-A student, an animal lover and a talented cook. A funeral service is being held tomorrow.
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Owasso High School are yet to comment with a police investigation on-going (google)"I was so proud of Nex - they were going some place, they were so free," she said. But saying she told the student to rise above the taunts, she told the publication: “I said ‘you’ve got to be strong and look the other way, because these people don’t know who you are’. I didn’t know how bad it had gotten.”
Ms Benedict said she was angry that the school had failed to call an ambulance or the police The bullying had started at the beginning of the 2023 school year, she claimed. In a statement, the Owasso Police Department said they were “conducting a very active and thorough investigation of the time and events that led up to the death of the student”.
Detectives are currently interviewing witnesses to the killing and said: "The Owasso Police Department will release all information required by law, but it is the Department's policy to not release incident reports for cases that are under active investigation when there is risk of compromising or harming the investigation.
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The non-binary student was 'attacked in a bathroom' with a trans friend (Benedict Family)"We understand that people are concerned about this incident and we can assure everyone that this incident is being taken seriously and is being investigated thoroughly. The Owasso Police Department offers our condolences to the family, friends, fellow students, and loved ones of the deceased student and we will do our best to discover the truth."
At the end of 2023, Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt signed a bill that required public school students to use bathrooms that matched the sex listed on their birth certificates. A GoFundMe has also been set up to help the family cover funeral costs and has reached almost $50,000. Owasso Public Schools told local meda it could not comment amid an ongoing investigation.
School friend Alexandria Davidson told WYMT: "At first, I didn't feel anything. I couldn't. What am I supposed to feel at that point? Knowing that someone that I could have used to know, someone I used to walk in the halls with, someone I could have been to class with is no longer a part of our lives, no longer part of the community. It's a community that I love, and now they are gone."