An altercation at an Oklahoma public school involving a 16-year-old nonbinary student who died the next day began after the student “poured water” on girls who had been teasing the teen, according to a video interview with Body camera released by the Owasso Police Department on Friday night.
He video of the 16 year old studentNex Benedict, speaking with an Owasso officer, provided the most complete account yet of what occurred inside the girls’ bathroom on February 7. The altercation drew national scrutiny after gay and transgender rights groups focused attention on Nex’s death as an example of the dangers. that gender non-conforming students face.
The interview, which lasted about 20 minutes and took place at a local hospital, provided new details of the confrontation at Owasso High School’s West Campus. Nex, who used the pronouns they and them with his peers, described how they “passed out” while three girls beat them on the bathroom floor and had made fun of Nex and his friends “for the way we dressed.”
“We were laughing. And they had said something like, ‘Why are you laughing like that?’ “They were talking about us in front of us. So I went up and poured water on them” from a plastic water bottle, Nex told the officer. “And then the three of them came at me,” Nex said.
The department also released surveillance video from inside the school showing students, including Nex, entering the bathroom and, separately, Nex walking through the hallways with a member of staff after the confrontation.
And the department provided Audio of 911 calls made by Sue BenedictNex’s grandmother and guardian, on the day of the altercation and then on February 8 while urgently searching for an ambulance for Nex.
Ms. Benedict told the dispatcher around 1:00 pm that Nex kept saying he had a headache and that Ms. Benedict was not sure if it was due to Nex’s head injury. Nex hit his head on the bathroom floor, Ms. Benedict said, describing the altercation the day before.
Ms. Benedict told the operator that Nex took medication at night for anxiety and “mood swings,” but that Nex had not taken any that day. When she was asked if Nex used illicit drugs, Ella Benedict said no, although Nex “has vaped.”
The videos, while providing more information, do not answer the question of how Nex died. The police department has said the death is still under investigation, but that preliminary results of an autopsy found that Nex “did not die as a result of trauma.” The state medical examiner’s office said its report on the autopsy and toxicology results would be made public when it was ready.
The death of a nonbinary student following an altercation at school prompted new scrutiny of Oklahoma’s restrictive policies for LGBTQ students, including new bathroom laws and a ban on gender transition care for minors. State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, who has been criticized for his anti-transgender rhetoric, said the death was a tragedy but did not alter his views, including on bathroom use or discussions about gender.
Human rights groups and transgender students have said some students have seen the political rhetoric of Oklahoma leaders in the Republican-dominated state as permission to harass and intimidate their classmates.
In his interview with the officer, Nex spoke from a bed at Bailey Medical Center in Owasso, with Ms. Benedict sitting nearby.
Ms. Benedict told the officer that the girls would not leave Nex alone. “They’re making comments, they’re throwing things, they’re calling us names,” Ms. Benedict said, recounting what Nex had told her.
The officer then asked Nex to describe what happened. Nex said that while they had told his family about the previous harassment, they had not reported it to school officials. “I didn’t really see the point,” Nex said.
Nex said other students had targeted Nex and his friends because of the way they dressed. The topic of Nex’s gender identity or that of his friends did not arise in the interview. Ms. Benedict referred to Nex using his birth name and pronouns during the police interview and in 911 calls.
Just before the altercation, Nex had been talking to friends inside the bathroom, while the girls were talking to their own friends nearby, Nex said.
During the altercation “they grabbed me by the hair. I held on to them. I threw one of them into a paper towel dispenser, then they took my legs off and threw me on the floor,” Nex said. “My friends tried to intervene and help, but I’m not sure, I passed out.”
The officer suggested to Nex and Ms. Benedict that it might not be prudent to pursue criminal charges because Nex was “the one who began by throwing an object or item at another individual.”
That fact “doesn’t give them the right to put their hands on you,” the officer said. “I just hate to see you both, criminally wise, obsessed with something so minuscule. But I’m here to do it if that’s what you want.” Ms. Benedict and Nex ultimately agreed not to press charges at that time.
