by WorldTribune Staff, February 22, 2024
Police in Owasso, Oklahoma said the Feb. 8 death of 16-year-old non-binary student Nex Benedict was not caused by injuries sustained in a fight in a school bathroom the day before, authorities said Wednesday.
A preliminary autopsy report by the medical examiner’s office indicated Benedict did not die from trauma, Owasso police said on Wednesday.
“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. “The official autopsy report will be available at a later date.”
According to a text, Benedict, who used they/them pronouns, had poured water on three older girls who then engaged in a fight with Benedict, who was a sophomore.
Benedict walked away from the bathroom fight on Feb. 7, but was later taken to the hospital. Benedict was sent home the same night.
Police said the fight was broken up by two other students and a staffer nearby.
The following day, the 16-year-old suffered a “medical emergency” and died after reaching the hospital, police said.
When asked what led to the fight, Benedict texted that it was bullying: “They had been bullying me and my friends and I got tired of it so I poured some water on them and all 3 came after me. School did not report it and is probably going to getting sued.”
Before any cause of death was determined or reported, leftist media blamed Oklahoma’s requirement that students use the restrooms that correspond with the sex “identified on the individual’s original birth certificate.”
The New York Times implicitly blames the altercation on the Oklahoma bathroom law as did The Independent, which pushed a story headlined “Oklahoma Banned Trans Students From Bathrooms. Now a Bullied Student Is Dead After a Fight.”
The Times ran with the headline “Anti-Trans Policies Draw Scrutiny After 16-Year-Old’s Death in Oklahoma”. The subhead adds that “the student, who did not identify as male or female, according to their family, died a day after an altercation in a school bathroom.” The story is illustrated by a photo of transgender rights activists during a 2023 demonstration at the Oklahoma Capitol. “Under state law,” the caption notes, “students must use the bathroom that aligns with their birth gender” (which Benedict, a biological female, was doing).
Reporters J. David Goodman and Edgar Sandoval return to the subject of state policy later in the story: “The death renewed scrutiny of anti-transgender laws passed in the state and rhetoric by Oklahoma officials, including the state superintendent for education, Ryan Walters, whose agency has been forceful in trying to bar what it calls ‘radical gender theory’ in schools.”
Related: Schools as ‘Epstein Islands’: Former history teacher goes scorched earth against ‘indoctrination’, February 1, 2024
Some social media users even blamed Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok.
Chaya Raichik promotes the hate that is literally killing kids.
— Jess Piper (@piper4missouri) February 19, 2024
chaya raichik targeted that child’s school district in 2022 and got a queer teacher fired. a month ago, the superintendent put her on the state’s dept of education. today, the child is dead, and chaya is waltzing around los angeles. i’m so fucking angry man. a fucking child
— matt (@mattxiv) February 20, 2024
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