Nonbinary student’s death prompts anger at Oklahoma state board meeting

Meetings of the Oklahoma State Board of Education at the Oliver Hodge Building in Oklahoma City have become a nexus point of contention over public school issues. (Photo by Kyle Phillips/For Oklahoma Voice)

This story originally appeared on Oklahoma Voice.

OKLAHOMA CITY — The death of a 16-year-old nonbinary student in Oklahoma cast a cloud of mourning and frustration over Thursday’s gathering of the state’s top school board.

Meetings of the Oklahoma State Board of Education have become a nexus point of contention over issues affecting public schools and students.

Thursday was no different, as the death of Owasso High School student Nex Benedict prompted outrage across the country and among several meeting attendees. Some speakers claimed anti-transgender policies and messaging from state officials caused the student to be attacked and bullied.

Nex died Feb. 8 of an unconfirmed cause.

Nex Benedict (Contribued)

Nex identified as nonbinary and used they/them pronouns. Nonbinary people do not identify as strictly male or female.

The Owasso Police Department said the student received hospital care after being involved in a fight in a school restroom on Feb. 7. Nex suffered a medical emergency the next day and died at the St. Francis Hospital Emergency Room.

Owasso police announced Wednesday an autopsy found trauma was not the cause of death.

“​​At this time, any further comments on the cause of death are currently pending until toxicology results and other ancillary testing results are received,” police said in a statement.

An autopsy report will be available at a later date, police reported.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters urged the public to wait for more details from law enforcement “before we pass judgment.”

State Superintendent Ryan Walters called the death of an Owasso High School student a “heartbreaking tragedy.” (Carmen Forman/Oklahoma Voice)

“Losing a student is extremely difficult,” Walters said during the meeting. “We should be keeping the Owasso families, communities in our prayers. It’s a heartbreaking tragedy and it’s difficult to so many folks over there. We want to be there to comfort them as best we can.”

Owasso Public Schools said the loss of a student is “devastating.”

“We recognize the impact that this event has had on the entire school community and it is our priority to foster an environment where everyone feels heard, supported, and safe,” the school district said in a statement.

Some attendees at the meeting blamed the rhetoric from Walters and his supporters for sparking the aggression Nex experienced.

“These children who attacked Nex had to be taught to hate,” said Mike Howe, a former Tulsa school principal who speaks at state board meetings regularly.

Nex was bullied at school, and it worsened this year after anti-transgender laws took effect in Oklahoma, the student’s mother told the British online newspaper The Independent.

Walters has been a vocal opponent of students using the restroom that matches their gender identity rather than biological sex, changing their gender marker in school records and other policies that are trans-affirming, often referring to these ideas as “transgender ideology.”

State Superintendent Ryan Walters speaks during a State Board of Education meeting on Aug. 24 in Oklahoma City. (Brent Fuchs for Oklahoma Voice)

He and the state Board of Education approved a rule last year that would require school employees to report to a student’s parents if the child changes pronouns or gender identity, a measure LGBTQ+ advocates said could out students to their families before they are ready to share that information at home.

Walters said his administration will do all it can to ensure student safety and learn from the Owasso incident.

Recent rules and laws have “completely changed” transgender and nonbinary students’ experience at school, said Nicole McAfee, executive director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Freedom Oklahoma.

Although the cause of Nex’s death is unclear, the context in which they lived and attended school is apparent, said McAfee, who also is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.

“I just think about how increasingly isolated students feel in an environment where they can’t talk openly about gender and sexuality with staff members or even counselors because there’s mandatory outing,” McAfee said, “where they can’t see themselves in stories in their library, where they are policed for their gender in sports and in everyday bathroom use, and where students are parroting the rhetoric that they’re hearing from elected officials in the state.”

They said all policymakers have a responsibility to “make sure that we disrupt this harm going forward.”

That’s why McAfee said it was harmful to hear Tulsa Board of Education member E’Lena Ashley refer to Nex by female pronouns and the birth name they no longer used rather than the pronouns and name that the student’s family said accurately reflect Nex’s nonbinary identity.

Ashley was speaking in public comment at the meeting and offered condolences and prayers to the student’s family. A furious meeting attendee shouted the name “Nex Benedict” in response.

Ashley did not immediately return a request for comment.

McAfee said the state Board of Education should have recognized Nex by name and acknowledged the improper identification.

“To just allow that to stand I think really speaks volumes about the harm that happens regularly, and oftentimes with the enthusiastic support of the folks in power over the day-to-day lives of Oklahoma students,” McAfee said.

Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com. Follow Oklahoma Voice on Facebook and Twitter.

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