Vigils have been held across the United States for Oklahoma teenager Nex Benedict, who died the day after a fight in a high school bathroom.
EDMOND, Okla. — Vigils are held across the country for an Oklahoma teen who died a day after a fight in a high school bathroom, and non-binary students say they are the targets of bullying. .
Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old who identified as non-binary and used they/them pronouns, got into an argument in a bathroom at Owasso High School with three female students who were bullying Benedict and her friends. Became. In a video released Friday, the girls told police they threw water on Benedict and assaulted him.
The day after the fight, Benedict's mother called paramedics to her parents' home and said Benedict's breathing was shallow, his eyes rolled back and his hands curled up, according to audio released by Owasso police.
A two-week-old police warrant states investigators are seeking evidence of felony murder, but the agency later said that based on preliminary autopsy results, Benedict's death was not caused by injuries sustained in a fight. It has been announced that there is no.
Vigils for Benedict were held in the days following the student's death in Oklahoma and other parts of the country, including Boston, Minneapolis, New York and Huntington Beach, California.
“This moment shouldn't be the only way we honor Nex,” Keiynan Durham, executive director of Pride at the Pier, said at Friday's event in Huntington Beach.
“This is hard for all of us,” Durham said in a report on KABC-TV in Los Angeles. “This community has experienced grief like this many times before.”
Many of the rallies were organized by LGBTQ+ groups to protest the frequent bullying that non-binary teens are subjected to. Benedict's family said Nex was bullied at school.
At a vigil held Saturday in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, Tahlequah's president said Benedict's death was traumatic and that the rights group had arranged for a licensed therapist to attend the rally. .
“It's really hard to be a member of the LGBT community in Oklahoma these days, because suicidal thoughts and suicidal thoughts are happening quite often,” Sanji Cooper told KOKI-TV. He added that after his death, the LGBT+ community began to speak out.
“If anything, we're passionate. The fire in our bellies has been reignited to continue the fight,” Cooper said. “If anything, it doesn't suppress us or prevent our voices from being heard. If anything, it makes us louder.”
On Friday, more than 20 people gathered at All Saints Episcopal Church in McAlester, Oklahoma, for a vigil hosted by the McAlester Rainbow Connection.
Matt Blansett, who organized the event for LGBTQ+ groups, said it was important to hold the vigil in McAlester in light of the 2020 murder of transgender man Dustin Parker.
“This shows people that we have a community and we're here and we're not going anywhere,” Blansett said.
All Saints Chaplain Janie Koch said it was important people reached out for support.
“There's a lot of emotions going around, so it's really important to look out for each other and look out for each other,” Koch said.
In the audio of the call to police, Benedict's mother, Sue Benedict, said she wanted authorities to press charges. In the hospital video, a responding officer can be heard explaining that the boy started the altercation by throwing water, so the court will consider it a mutual fight.
According to a police search warrant, Sue Benedict told police on February 7 that she did not want to press charges at the time. Instead, she asked police to speak with Owasso High School officials about issues between students on campus.
A Feb. 9 search warrant filed in court on Feb. 21 also shows investigators took 137 photos inside the school, including inside the girls' restroom where the fight occurred. They also collected two dirty swabs from the bathroom and recovered records and documents of the students involved in the altercation.
Police officials said they would not comment further on the boy's cause of death until toxicology and other autopsy results are complete.