Oklahoma nonbinary teens death ruled suicide, triggering anger -

OKLAHOMA CITY — The death of a nonbinary teen who collapsed a day after an altercation at a high school in Owasso, Okla., has been ruled a suicide, according to a one-page summary report released Wednesday by the state’s chief medical examiner.

Nex Benedict’s death last month triggered vigils not only in that Tulsa suburb but across the country because the sophomore, who used they/them pronouns, had told family that other students were bullying them in school.

The fight happened Feb. 7. The 16-year-old collapsed at home the next morning and died within hours at a Tulsa hospital. The medical examiner’s report said the teen had antihistamine and antidepressant “combined toxicity” in their system. For manner of death, the box checked was “suicide.”

The full autopsy report is to be released March 27. Investigators are awaiting that report before submitting their findings to the Tulsa County district attorney, according to Lt. Nick Boatman, a spokesman for the Owasso Police Department. The summary references both Nex’s preferred name and legal first name.

“From the beginning of this investigation, Owasso Police observed many indications that this death was the result of suicide. However, investigators did not wish to confirm that information without the final results being presented by the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office,” the department said in a statement.

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Boatman declined to say whether authorities found any note from Nex but pointed out that the medical examiner had previously said Nex’s death was not the result of trauma suffered in the incident in a girl’s bathroom. “And here we have the front page of their actual report that says ‘Cause of death: Suicide by these drugs.’ No mention of any trauma,” he said.

Investigators have interviewed Nex’s family, teachers, school staff and students involved in the fight, Boatman said, including all of the students who appeared in school security videos that police released last month.

He cautioned that the case is not closed: “We present all of our findings to the DA, no matter what. We investigate, and the DA decides” whether to file charges, he said.

A spokeswoman for the Tulsa County district attorney said Wednesday that the office was awaiting those findings before commenting.

Nex’s family released a statement Thursday saying they wanted to “ensure other pertinent portions of the report are not overshadowed by the ‘classification’ of Nex’s death” as a suicide, including the physical trauma the medical examiner found that relatives believe are “evidence [of] the severity of the assault.” The full autopsy report, the statement said, identified contusions, abrasions, lacerations and hemorrhages on Nex’s head.

“The Benedicts continue to call on our schools, administrators, lawmakers, and communities to come together to prevent any other family from having to suffer through the heartache now borne by Nex’s loved ones,” the statement said. “Reforms creating school environments that are built upon the pillars of respect, inclusion and grace, and aim to eliminate bullying and hate, are the types of change that all involved should be able to rally behind.”

LGBTQ+ activists have reacted over the past month with anger and sadness, saying the state, which in recent years has passed numerous bills considered hostile to their communities, failed Nex and other students like them.

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“We have a responsibility to acknowledge the role anti-trans policies and rhetoric continue to play,” the advocacy group Freedom Oklahoma said in a statement. The autopsy summary “only further emphasizes the state of crisis our youth are in.”

The summary’s release came days after a contentious Owasso school board meeting, during which parents complained of bullying at schools while Superintendent Margaret Coates lauded the district’s efforts to protect students. The audience alternately applauded and booed. Several in attendance were escorted out.

A couple of weeks ago, dozens of Owasso High School students staged a walkout in support of Nex. On Thursday, dozens of protesters chanted and marched outside the state capitol. Teachers from a nearby school brought their class. Protesters carried signs that said “Justice for Nex” and “It was not suicide.”

“So many of us probably see ourselves in Nex. I know I do,” Rep. Mauree Turner told the crowd. The Oklahoma City Democrat, who’s nonbinary, then reminded those gathered, “We have community that holds us and that keeps us safe. Because we keep us safe.”

The crowd chanted in response, “We keep us safe!”

The Owasso superintendent emailed a message to district staff and students’ families on Wednesday. “We understand that the information released today may bring up additional thoughts, feelings and emotions for students and staff members,” Coates wrote. “As we mourn together, OPS remains focused on the safety and well-being of our students and staff.”

In the wake of Nex’s death, the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation into alleged sex-based harassment and discrimination at Owasso High School. The action followed a complaint by the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

“We have heard from so many parents and students that this culture of bullying and harassment is both pervasive at Owasso Public Schools and that many within the school had actual knowledge that it was occurring and took no steps to fix it,” HRC president Kelley Robinson said in a statement on Wednesday.

The group pointed to reporting from The Washington Post, which showed “that in states with laws that target LGBTQ+ youth, hate crimes against those youth quadruple. … [A]nti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in the statehouse does not stop at those doors, but in fact has real and measurable consequences in the schoolhouse.”

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