EDMOND, Okla. (AP) — Vigils occurred throughout the nation for an Oklahoma teenager who died the day after a struggle in a highschool toilet by which the nonbinary pupil mentioned they have been a goal of bullying.
Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old who recognized as nonbinary and used they/them pronouns, received into an altercation with three ladies in an Owasso Excessive College toilet who have been selecting on Benedict and a few associates. The women attacked Benedict for pouring water on them, the teenager advised police in a video launched Friday.
Benedict’s mom known as emergency responders to the household residence the day after the struggle, saying Benedict’s respiration was shallow, their eyes have been rolling again and their fingers have been curled, in keeping with audio launched by Owasso police.
Vigils for Benedict have been held in Oklahoma and places throughout the nation, together with Boston, Minneapolis, New York and Huntington Seaside, California within the days following the scholar’s loss of life.
Kanan Durham, govt director of Satisfaction on the Pier, mentioned in the course of the Huntington Seaside occasion on Friday that “this single second can’t be the one method that we honor Nex.”
“This can be a lot for all of us,” Durham mentioned in a report by KABC-TV in Los Angeles. “This neighborhood has skilled grief like this so many instances earlier than.”
Lots of the gatherings have been organized by LGBTQ+ teams to protest towards the frequent bullying suffered by nonbinary teenagers. Benedict’s household says Nex was bullied at college.
At a vigil Saturday in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the president of TahlEquality mentioned Benedict’s loss of life was traumatic and the rights group organized for licensed therapists to be accessible on the occasion.
“It’s actually laborious being an LGBT neighborhood member in Oklahoma these days as a result of suicide ideation and suicidal ideas occur fairly a bit,” Sanj Cooper advised KOKI-TV, including that the LGBT+ neighborhood additionally was moved to talk out after Benedict’s passing.
“If something we’re impassioned, the hearth in our stomach has been lit up once more to proceed to struggle,” Cooper mentioned. “If something it doesn’t oppress or preserve us from our voice from being heard. If something it makes it louder.”
Greater than two dozen folks gathered Friday at All Saints Episcopal Church in McAlester, Oklahoma, for a vigil organized by the McAlester Rainbow Connection.
Matt Blancett, who organized the occasion for the LGBTQ+ group, mentioned it was essential to carry a vigil in McAlester due to the homicide of Dustin Parker, a transgender man, in 2020.
“It exhibits people who we now have a neighborhood, we’re right here, we’re not going anyplace,” Blancett mentioned.
All Saints Priest Janie Koch mentioned it will be significant for folks to succeed in out for help.
“It is rather crucial because the gamut of feelings are biking to be careful for one another, to be conscious of each other,” Koch mentioned.
In audio of the decision to police, Benedict’s mom, Sue Benedict, mentioned she needed authorities to file prices. The officer who responded will be heard within the hospital video explaining that the teenager began the altercation by throwing the water and the court docket would view it as a mutual struggle.
In response to a police search warrant, Sue Benedict indicated to police on Feb. 7 that she didn’t need to file prices at the moment. She as an alternative requested police to talk to officers at Owasso Excessive College about points on campus amongst college students.
The Feb. 9 search warrant, which was filed with the court docket on Feb. 21, additionally exhibits investigators took 137 images on the faculty, together with contained in the lady’s toilet the place the struggle occurred. Additionally they collected two swabs of stains from the toilet and retrieved data and paperwork of the scholars concerned within the altercation.
Whereas the two-week-old warrant states that police have been in search of proof in a felony homicide, the division has since mentioned Benedict’s loss of life was not a results of accidents suffered within the struggle, based mostly on the preliminary outcomes of the post-mortem.
The police division mentioned it doesn’t plan to remark additional on the teenager’s explanation for loss of life till toxicology and different post-mortem outcomes are accomplished.