Oklahoma transgender student dies after allegedly assaulted by students at school [View all]

Oklahoma transgender student dies after allegedly assaulted by students at school

There's an outcry in Oklahoma after the death of a transgender student that has sparked demands for answers.
CHRISTOPHER WIGGINS
FEBRUARY 20 2024 12:56 PM EST

In Oklahoma, the death of a transgender student after they were assaulted in a school bathroom has sparked widespread outrage and sorrow. Nex Benedict, a sophomore at Owasso High School, was brutally beaten by other students earlier this month and died the following day. The incident has drawn national attention, with many attributing the violent act to a culture of transphobia they say is being stoked by state officials.

The assault on Benedict, 16, happened on February 7, when three older girls attacked them in the girls’ bathroom, Tulsa NBC affiliate KJRH reports. A teacher intervened to stop the fight. Staff didn't call an ambulance, the outlet noted.

Benedict's grandmother, who was their guardian, took the teenager to the hospital that day. They went back the next day after Benedict became ill. Benedict died that evening.

The grandmother, Sue Benedict, toldThe Independent that her child had been the subject of months of intensifying bullying that began earlier in 2023 after Oklahoma’s Republican-led government banned transgender students from using school bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

“I didn’t know how bad it had gotten,” she told the outlet.
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