Vigils held nationwide for nonbinary Oklahoma teenager who died after school bathroom fight

EDMOND, Okla. —  Vigils took place across the nation over the weekend for an Oklahoma teenager who died the day after a fight in a high school bathroom in which the nonbinary student said they were the target of bullying.

Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old Oklahoma student who identified as nonbinary and used they/them pronouns, got into an altercation Feb. 7 with three girls in an Owasso High School bathroom who were picking on Benedict and some friends, the teen told police. The girls attacked Benedict for pouring water on them, the teen told police in a video released Friday.

Benedict’s mother called emergency responders to the family home the day after the fight, saying Benedict’s breathing was shallow, eyes were rolling back and hands were curled, according to audio released by Owasso police.

Vigils for Benedict were held in cities including Boston, Minneapolis and Huntington Beach. Others were held or planned in several states including Washington, New Jersey, New York and Texas.

Kanan Durham, executive director of Pride at the Pier, said during the Huntington Beach event on Friday that “this single moment cannot be the only way that we honor Nex.”

“This is a lot for all of us,” Durham said in a report by KABC-TV. “This community has experienced grief like this so many times before.”

At a vigil Saturday in Tahlequah, Okla., the president of TahlEquality said Benedict’s death was traumatic and the rights group arranged for licensed therapists to be available at the event.

“It’s really hard being an LGBT community member in Oklahoma nowadays because suicide ideation and suicidal thoughts happen quite a bit,” Sanj Cooper told KOKI-TV, adding that the LGBT+ community was moved to speak out after Benedict’s death.

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“If anything it doesn’t oppress or keep us from our voice from being heard. If anything it makes it louder,” Cooper said.

Police have said Benedict’s death was not a result of injuries suffered in the fight, based on the preliminary results of the autopsy. But the Owasso police department said it does not plan to comment further on the cause of death until toxicology and other autopsy results are completed.

More than two dozen people gathered Friday at All Saints Episcopal Church in McAlester, Okla. All Saints Priest Janie Koch said it is important for people to reach out for support.

“It is very very important as the gamut of emotions are cycling to watch out for each other, to be mindful of one another,” Koch said.

In audio of the call to police, Benedict’s mother, Sue Benedict, said she wanted to file charges. The officer who responded can be heard in the hospital video replying that the teen started the altercation by throwing the water and the court would view it as a mutual fight.

According to a police search warrant, Sue Benedict indicated to police on Feb. 7 that she didn’t want to file charges at that time. She instead asked police to speak to officials at Owasso High School about issues on campus among students.

The Feb. 9 search warrant, which was filed with the court on Feb. 21, also shows investigators took 137 photographs at the school, including inside the girls’ bathroom where the fight occurred. They collected two swabs of stains from the bathroom and retrieved records and documents of the students involved in the altercation.

While the two-week-old warrant states that police were seeking evidence in a felony murder, the department has since said Benedict’s death was not a result of injuries from the fight.