Nex Benedict’s school district failed to protect students, investigation finds

The Department of Education has concluded that an Oklahoma school district was accountable for fostering a hostile climate in the lead up to pupil Nex Benedict’s death earlier this year.

Warning: this story contains references to abuse that some readers may find upsetting.

16-year-old Benedict, who friends say identified as Two Spirit, died on 8 February, a day after being taken to hospital following an alleged altercation at a high school in Owasso.

An autopsy report released a month later concluded that Benedict, who was a member of the Choctaw Nation, died of an overdose from a cocktail of drugs. Following an outcry for officials to investigate the circumstances, the Department of Education announced in March that it had begun a review of the Owasso Public Schools district.

A final report, published on Wednesday (13 November), said the district had failed to uphold safeguarding regulations, including to respond to notice of sexual harassment.

The Department for Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) said in the review that it had found “repeated instances” of sexual harassment within the district.

These instances included a teacher who was allegedly “grooming female students on social media”.

The report revealed that the teacher had sent more than 130 messages to pupils, including asking them to describe their physical appearance. An elementary-school student was reportedly subjected to “repeated harassing remarks” that were described as “sexual in nature”.

Catherine Lhamon, the assistant secretary for civil rights at the OCR, said: “Owasso students and their families did not receive the fair and equitable review process from their school district guaranteed to them under [education civil rights legislation] Title IX.

“At worst, some students experienced discrimination congress has long-guaranteed they shall not endure at school.”

The OCR went on to that, when given notice of several other incidents, Owasso Public Schools failed to explain the process for filing a Title IX complaint or discuss supportive measures for complainants, pointing out: “The 2020 regulations to Title IX require school districts to follow these procedures after receiving notice of conduct that could constitute sexual harassment.”

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which first petitioned for the investigation, said the findings “leaves no doubt” of the district’s failures to protect students such as Benedict.

“The evidence shows that officials were well aware of the hostile climate in their schools, yet repeatedly chose indifference and inaction when confronted,” HRC president Kelley Robinson claimed. “While no accountability measure can fully heal the grief and anger that Nex’s family and this community feels, a message has been sent: trans and non-binary students have worth.”

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