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The Owasso Police Department released a series of videos related to Nex Benedict’s death. One confirms that Nex was bullied.
As the investigation into the tragic death of 16-year-old LGBTQ+ teenager Nex Benedict in Oklahoma unfolds, captivating a nation, new details emerged Friday evening, spotlighting the systemic challenges confronting LGBTQ+ youth, including the failures of school officials to contact police after a serious fight. The Owasso Police Department made public several videos that show some of what happened February 7, when an altercation among students ended with one of them dead the following day.
Nex — who was nonbinary and had Indigenous heritage — was in an altercation with three other students in a restroom at Owasso High School and was said to have suffered head trauma. The teen went to a hospital afterward and was released, but they went back the next day, when they died. The police department released a statement Wednesday saying that preliminary findings after a complete autopsy indicate that trauma was not the cause of the teen’s death, seeming to suggest that injuries from the fight were not responsible. But the police report also noted that official confirmation of the cause of death would not come until after toxicology and other tests were completed. That could take several weeks.
Two videos released Friday showed surveillance camera footage from inside Owasso High School that did not capture any of the assault. However, 21 minutes of body camera footage from School Resource Officer Caleb Thompson captured a critical conversation in the emergency room between Thompson, Nex, and Sue Benedict, the teen's grandmother and adoptive mother. This footage provides an unfiltered look into Nex’s struggle for their own justice and understanding after a school altercation that escalated allegedly due to bullying, particularly over their appearance.
In the aftermath of the teen’s death, a pattern of bullying has emerged, as confirmed in the video. In recounting the events that led to the altercation, Nex pointed to their and a friend's attire as a flashpoint for the bullying, saying, “because of the way that we dressed,” which catalyzed the harassment.
“I got jumped,” Nex said.
In the video, Thompson casts Nex’s action of squirting water in response to ongoing harassment as legally tantamount to the violence inflicted upon them. Thompson elaborates on the potential legal ramifications, suggesting that the altercation could be viewed as a “mutual fight,” a perspective that equates the water with physical assault. He warns Nex that if they were to press charges, the girls that beat them could also press charges against them for splashing water on them.
"I will also tell you though is the saying 'what's good for the goose is good for the gander'," he says.
Sue Benedict becomes visibly frustrated in the video and demands accountability. She insists on the involvement of the assailants’ parents and criticizes the school’s delayed response. “Chastise them for not calling,” she says.
Thompson acknowledges, “The fact of the matter is they [the school] dropped the ball in this one of not notifying me.”
The conversation wraps up when the officer explains that he must have the mother sign a form that says she was given two options and chose not to press charges. Thompson mentioned that if Nex is evaluated and appears to have more than “scrapes” and “bruises” and the family wants to reconsider charges, they should contact him.
Nex died the next day.
In response to the videos, GLAAD CEO and president Sarah Kate Ellis wrote in a statement:
"It is haunting to hear Nex Benedict, in their own words, describe how school and state leaders failed, at every level of leadership, to keep them safe from bullying and harm. Less than 24 hours later, Nex would collapse and die. The release of the chilling 9-1-1 call by Nex’s mother, Sue Benedict, school surveillance video, and police body-cam footage of Nex in the emergency room recounting the brutal assault, all point to a clear and catastrophic cascade of failures from a school and state’s basic responsibility of safety and care for all young people. Passing laws that ban students from bathrooms, refusing to act to prevent or stop bullying in all its forms, coupled with state leaders who perjure themselves by spreading lies and ostracizing LGBTQ students – this is a hostile, combustible environment that no student should ever have to endure in school. Every young person, their friends and their families, need to know this is not normal and this cannot be acceptable. In Oklahoma and other states passing discriminatory laws against LGBTQ youth, we must all decide that now is the time to speak up and stand up to demand safety and acceptance for all students to live, learn and grow in peace.”
Watch the body-worn camera video showing Nex Benedict speaking with police. Note: Throughout the video, Nex Benedict is deadnamed and misgendered.
OPD 2024-3316 Community Releasewww.youtube.com
