A fight at an Oklahoma public school involving a 16-year-old non-binary student who died the next day began after the student “threw water” on girls who were teasing the teenager, according to a dashcam video released by the Owasso Police Department late on Friday.
The video of the 16-year-old student, Nex Benedict, talking to an Owasso officer provided the full account so far of what happened in the girls’ bathroom on Feb. 7. attention to Nex’s death as an example of the dangers faced by gender non-conforming students.
The interview, which lasted about 20 minutes and took place at a local hospital, provided new details about the standoff at Owasso High School’s West Campus. Nex, who used their pronouns with their peers, described how they “blacked out” while being beaten on the bathroom floor by three girls who had previously teased Nex and their friends “because of the way we dress.”
“We were laughing. And they had said something like, “Why are they laughing like that?” They were talking about us in front of us. And so I went up there and threw water on them” from a plastic water bottle, Nex told the officer. “And then all three of them came at me,” Nex said.
The department also released surveillance video from inside the school showing students, including Nex, going into the bathroom and, separately, Nex walking the halls with a staff member after the collision.
And the department provided audio of the 911 calls made by Sue Benedict, Nex’s grandmother and guardian, the day of the fight and then on Feb. 8 as she urgently called an ambulance for Nex.
Ms. Benedict told the dispatcher around 1 p.m. that Nex kept saying he had a headache and Ms. Benedict wasn’t sure if it was from Nex’s head injury. Nex hit their heads on the bathroom floor, Ms. Benedict said, describing the fight the day before.
Ms. Benedict told the dispatcher that Nex was taking medication at night for anxiety and “mood swings,” but that Nex had not taken any medication that day. Asked if Nex had taken illegal drugs, Ms Benedict said no, although Nex had “vaped”.
The videos, while providing more information, did not answer the question of how Nex died. The police department said the death is still under investigation, but that preliminary autopsy results determined Nex “did not die as a result of blunt force trauma.” The state medical examiner’s office said its report on the results of the autopsy and toxicology will be released when it is ready.
The death of a non-binary student after a fight at school has prompted renewed scrutiny of Oklahoma’s restrictive policies for LGBTQ students — including new bathroom laws and a ban on gender transition care for minors. State Superintendent of Schools Ryan Walters, who has been criticized for his anti-trans rhetoric, said the death was a tragedy but did not change his views, including on bathroom use or gender discussions.
Rights groups and transgender students said the political rhetoric of Oklahoma leaders in the Republican-dominated state was seen by some students as a license to harass and bully their classmates.
In their interview with the officer, Nex spoke from a bed at Bailey Medical Center in Owasso, with Ms. Benedict sitting nearby.
Mrs. Benedict told the officer that the girls would not leave Nex alone. “They make comments, throw things, call us names,” Ms. Benedict said, recounting what Nex had told her.
The officer then asked Nex to describe what happened. Nex said that while they had told their family about the previous bullying, they had not reported it to school officials. “I didn’t really see the point in it,” Nex said.
Nex said that other students had focused on Nex and their friends because of the way they dressed. The issue of Nex’s or their friends’ gender identity did not come up in the interview. Ms. Benedict referred to Nex using her birth name and pronouns during the police interview and 911 calls.
Just before the fight, Nex was talking to friends in the bathroom while the girls were talking to their own friends nearby, Nex said.
During the fight, “they grabbed my hair. I caught on to them. I threw one of them into a paper towel dispenser, then they took my legs out from under me and put me on the ground,” Nex said. “My friends tried to jump in and help, but I’m not sure, I passed out.”
The officer suggested to Nex and Ms. Benedict that criminal charges might not be wise to pursue because Nex was “the one who started it by throwing an object or object at another person.”
That fact “doesn’t give them the right to put their hands on you,” the officer said. “I just hate to see both of you, criminal wise, get so hung up on something so petty. But I’m here to do it if that’s what you like.” Ms. Benedict and Nex eventually agreed not to press charges at that time.
