The Department of Education (DOE) is launching an investigation in the Owasso Public School District, Oklahoma, following the death of Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old non-binary Native American student. Benedict died a day after 3 women attacked them at one of the best schools. Student bathroom.
The branch agreed to investigate in reaction to a request from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization. The investigation was announced days after 350 public figures and LGBTQ rights teams signed an open letter calling on the Oklahoma Legislature to remove the Oklahoma Legislature.
Current and former scholars paint a bleak picture of Owasso High School for the protection of its LGBTQ scholars.
On February 22, HRC sent letters to U. S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, asking their departments to investigate the cases of Benedict’s death.
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The HRC letter noted that the Oklahoma government “has become increasingly hostile toward the LGBTQ network in recent years” and that Owasso High School “has unlawfully failed to address the discrimination and harassment” that Benedict allegedly experienced prior to his death. The cases and the attack on Benedict would have arguably violated federal civil rights and hate crimes laws, respectively.
“The death of We Nex is the natural result of a rising tide of hate against LGBTQ people,” the two letters read. “This hatred is fueled through a coordinated and unprecedented attempt to take away the rights and visibility of our communities across the country. which recently led us to call for a national state of emergency for LGBTQ people for the first time in nearly part of a century of history. . . “
In a March 1 letter to HRC President Kelley Robinson, the DOE wrote that it would investigate whether the school district “failed to respond to allegations of student harassment” in accordance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (a federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex) and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (a federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of discrimination). sex motives for gender dysphoria, adding trans and non-binary identity).
In a Feb. 28 letter to the Oklahoma state legislature, more than 350 public figures and LGBTQ rights teams suggested the legislature remove Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction. Walters accused of causing Benedict’s death because of his anti-LGBTQ advocacy.
In January, Walters appointed Chaya Raichik, an anti-LGBTQ activist who follows TikTok’s so-called Libs on social media, to serve on a statewide e-book ban committee. Raichik doesn’t live in the state and doesn’t enjoy education. Her previous social media posts resulted in death threats against educators, which she celebrated.
“In the weeks since Nex’s death, many other young people have come forward to detail the widespread harassment of 2SLGBTQI scholars in Oklahoma through their peers, teachers, and administrators,” the letter states. “Superintendent Walters’ misconduct shows a planned disregard of his duty to the fitness and well-being of youth in Oklahoma public schools and has instead created an environment that allows for hostility and prejudice toward other youth like Nex. “
The letter was signed through GLAAD, GLSEN, It Gets Better, Lambda Legal, the Matthew Shepard Foundation, the National LGBTQ Task Force, PFLAG, The Trevor Project, and state and national social justice organizations allied with gay men.
Local police said they were investigating Benedict’s death and treating it as a imaginable murder.
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