Nex Benedict, a 16 year old student who died after sustaining injuries in a bathroom assault, is receiving continued injustice from the Oklahoma Public School System and the Owasso police department.
The Owasso police department released a statement stating that Nex ‘did not die as a result of trauma’ before the medical examiner had determined a cause of death. Sue Benedict, Nex’s mother and member of the Choctaw nation, has called the statement ‘a big cover.’ The family released a statement through their lawyer that they are ‘independently interviewing witnesses and collecting all available evidence.’
The statement from Biby Law Firm discussing the death of Nex Benedict. (Facebook)
On February 7th, 2024, Nex reported that three older students attacked them in the school bathroom after enduring months of merciless bullying by students and staff at Owasso High School. They went to the ER afterwards; the next day, Nex collapsed at home and died. Although details are murky about the precise events, the police department’s statement seems to copy large excerpts from the Owasso Public School Systems’s statement (as revealed by Judd Legum of Popular Information.)
In footage released by the Owasso Police Department, the officer called in after Nex’s assault states that as Nex threw water at their assaulter first, therefore they were liable for their own assault as it was ‘the first jab’ and it was in their best interest not to follow the report. A security guard escorts Nex to the nurses’ office in additional footage showing the aftermath of the assault.
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Libs of TikTok Involvement
Oklahoma school superintendent Ryan Walters has told The New York Times that ‘radical leftists’ are responsible for spreading a false narrative about Nex’s death. Ryan Walters, who oversaw the implementation of S.B. 615 which forces trans students to use bathrooms associated with the gender they were assigned at birth, has long been an opponent of trans students.
Sean Cummings, vice-mayor of The Village, a suburb of Oklahoma, accused both The Board of Education and “Libs of TikTok” influencer Chaya Raichik of having ‘blood of their hands’ for promoting the bullying and harassment od members of the 2SLGBTIQ+ community specifically in the Owasso community. The Human Rights Campaign has also demanded a federal investigation into Nex’s death.
It’s not a far fetched claim at all: Chaya Raichik, a former real estate agent and influencer, has been appointed as an advisor to the Oklahoma State Library Committee, despite being not a resident of Oklahoma, a librarian, educator or (in this writer’s opinion) qualified to hold any position of power or influence. Their rhetoric is pure hate masquerading as care for children, designed to attack our most vulnerable members of our community, trans and gender diverse children.
Chaya Raichik, Libs of TikTok influencer and anti-trans advocate, looks proud of herself for being complicit in the disenfranchisement of trans children and emboldening bullying, harassment and assault. (GettyImages)
I speak now as an individual, to the family of Nex Benedict. Your child deserved better, you deserved better. So, we will not let this go quietly into the dark. I will continue to campaign so that your child receives justice.
Sources: 2News Oklahoma, ABC News, Advocate, The Cut, Facebook, The Independent, Lambda Legal, New York Times, Popular Information, Them, USA Today
