After the death of Nex Benedict, classmates at Owasso High School say bullying often goes unpunished, causing students to feel like there\u2019s no point asking for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
OWASSO, Okla. \u2014 At least 40 students at Owasso High School walked out Monday to protest what they describe as a pervasive culture of bullying with little accountability, which they believe led to a student\u2019s death at their school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nex Benedict, 16, died Feb. 8<\/a>, a day after a fight in a bathroom on the school\u2019s West Campus. In body camera footage from a police officer\u2019s interview<\/a> with Nex, he described how three students \u201cjumped\u201d him after he threw water on them because they were bullying him and his friend over the way that they dressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nex\u2019s mother, Sue Benedict, previously told The Independent<\/a> that Nex told her he faced bullying due to his gender identity. Friends said Nex was transgender and primarily went by he\/him pronouns at school but also used they\/them pronouns, which Nex’s family also used. Several other friends said Nex preferred he\/him pronouns. In the body camera footage, when the police officer asked Nex if he ever reported the bullying to the school, Nex said, \u201cI didn\u2019t really see the point in it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Owasso students told NBC News that Nex\u2019s answer is common among their classmates: LGBTQ students and others who\u00a0face bullying due to their identities<\/a>\u00a0feel like when they report the bullying to the school, they either aren\u2019t believed or nothing really changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n An Owasso High School spokesperson Brock Crawford said that students attend an assembly at the beginning of each school year that “includes the processes and procedures they should follow to report bullying or other safety concerns.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n “We take reports of bullying very seriously and have policies and procedures in place to address such behavior,” he said, adding that students are encouraged to report such incidents. “All reported bullying accusations are investigated by administrators at the school site in which they occur, and are reviewed by the district\u2019s Director of Safety and Security.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a letter to students sent Sunday that was shared with NBC News, the school acknowledged the planned walkout and said it supported students\u2019 right to demonstrate but that students doing so would be marked absent from class, barring written permission from parents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are committed to supporting the academic and social emotional needs of our students while maintaining a safe and orderly learning environment for all,\u201d the letter said. \u201cOur district safety and security team continues to work closely with law enforcement to help ensure everyone\u2019s safety.\u201d The letter added that experienced counselors were on hand to speak with students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The walkout is not political, said Kane, a nonbinary student who went to Owasso High School for 10th and 11th grade and now takes online classes for his senior year. Kane, who asked that only his first name be used for fear of being targeted further, led a 5-minute moment of silence in honor of Nex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kane said he has gone back and forth between in-person school and online classes since eighth grade in part due to bullying over his sexuality more than his gender identity. When he was a sophomore, a student called him and his partner \u201cf——,\u201d and he said students casually use the N-word often with no repercussions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The high school has a student body of just less than 3,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ahead of the walkout on Monday, one counter-protester made anti-LGBTQ statements using a megaphone. As he made comments about AIDS and how Jesus Christ was the \u201creal man\u201d lesbians need, students holding signs stating \u201ctrans youth belong\u201d surrounded him to block him from sight.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s been bullying issues. This time, the bullying has gone so far that a student has passed,\u201d said Kane, who is one of the organizers of Monday\u2019s walkout. \u201cTo me, it doesn\u2019t matter if Nex passed from a traumatic brain injury or if they passed from suicide. What matters is the fact that they died after getting bullied, and that is the story for so many other students. I\u2019ve been close to ending it myself because of bullying. It\u2019s not new for so many students.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Robin Gray Ingersoll, who used to date Nex, said that he feels supported by the school, but that more could be done. He said that when he was on his way out to the walkout, Principal Tiffani Cooper told him she loves and supports him. The message Ingersoll hopes the walkout sends is that trans people aren\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe matter, and we will fight in his honor,\u201d he said of Nex. \u201cBecause that\u2019s what he was about \u2014 fighting and sticking up for himself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Owasso Police Department said in a statement Wednesday that preliminary information from an autopsy report shows that Nex\u2019s death was not the result of trauma<\/a>. As a result, Kane said speculation that Nex died from an overdose has been rampant among classmates. A toxicology exam is still pending, and an official autopsy will be released later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ally, a senior at Owasso who uses they\/them pronouns and asked to go by only their first name to protect their privacy, was friends with Nex. They said they aren\u2019t out publicly about their gender identity due to fears about bullying, but they\u2019ve seen friends, including Nex, face it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven if something did happen, there\u2019s no point in going to any kind of administration or teachers about it because absolutely nothing will be done,\u201d Ally said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve seen it time and time again with my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither of the students actually knew what the Owasso Public Schools\u2019 bullying policy was and said they had never been informed of it by their school. The district\u2019s student conduct code prohibits bullying<\/a>, which includes \u201ca pattern of harassment, intimidation, threatening behavior, physical acts, verbal or electronic communication, directed toward a student or group of students that results in or is reasonably perceived as being done with the intent to cause negative educational or physical results for the targeted individual or group\u201d and is communicated in a way that would disrupt the school\u2019s educational mission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to meet the definition, district policy added that a reasonable person should recognize that such actions would \u201charm another student, damage another student\u2019s property, place another student in reasonable fear or harm to the student\u2019s property,\u201d or insult or demean \u201cany student or group of students\u201d in a way that disrupts the school\u2019s educational mission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\u00a0district\u2019s website advises<\/a>\u00a0anyone who suspects that a student is being bullied to\u00a0Owasso Public Schools \u201creport and stop bullying\u201d form<\/a>\u00a0or call the Stop Bullying Now hotline at 1-800-273-8255. It also notes that every school has a designated school administrator who investigates bullying reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ally said they hadn\u2019t been as involved in the planning of the walkout as Kane had because they know their friend was the catalyst for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI always have that reminder of what happened to them, and I can never really escape it because I go on my phone, it\u2019s there,\u201d they said. \u201cI go out to go do something with a friend, I hear people talking about it. It\u2019s always going to be there. I don\u2019t truly ever have an escape for it. But I know that in whatever way I can, I would absolutely love to help get rid of what\u2019s been happening at Owasso. Because my friend literally died from this, someone who I love died, and they had so much life left to live \u2014 like they weren\u2019t even a month into being 16 when they died.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n