Vigils held nationwide for nonbinary Oklahoma teenager who died following school bathroom fight

EDMOND, Okla. – Vigils happened around the country on Friday and Saturday for an Oklahoma teenager who died the day after a fight in a top school bathroom wherein the nonbinary pupil claimed to be a goal of bullying.

Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old Oklahoma student who recognized as nonbinary and used they/them pronouns, were given into an altercation with 3 women in an Owasso High School bathroom who had been choosing on Benedict and a few pals. The women attacked Benedict for pouring water on them, the teenager instructed police in a video released Friday.

Vigils for Benedict had been held at places together with Boston, Minneapolis and Huntington Beach, California. Others had been held or deliberate in different states together with Washington, New Jersey, New York and Texas.

Kanan Durham, government director of Pride on the Pier, mentioned all through the Huntington Beach match on Friday that “this single moment cannot be the only way that we honor Nex.”

“This is a lot for all of us,” Durham mentioned in a record by means of KABC-TV. “This community has experienced grief like this so many times before.”

At a vigil Saturday in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the president of TahlEquality mentioned Benedict’s demise used to be disturbing and the rights staff organized for authorized therapists to be to be had on the match.

“It’s really hard being an LGBT community member in Oklahoma nowadays because suicide ideation and suicidal thoughts happen quite a bit,” Sanj Cooper told KOKI-TV, adding that the LGBT+ community also was moved to speak out after Benedict’s passing.

“If anything we are impassioned, the fire in our belly has been lit up again to continue to fight,” Cooper mentioned. “If anything it doesn’t oppress or keep us from our voice from being heard. If anything it makes it louder.”

More than two dozen people gathered Friday at All Saints Episcopal Church in McAlester, Oklahoma, for a vigil organized by the McAlester Rainbow Connection.

Matt Blancett, who organized the vigil with the Rainbow Connection, an LGBTQ+ group, said it was important to hold a vigil in McAlester because of the murder of Dustin Parker, a transgender man, in 2020.

“It shows people that we have a community, we are here, we’re not going anywhere,” Blancett said.

All Saints Priest Janie Koch said it is important for people to reach out for support.

“It is very very important as the gamut of emotions are cycling to watch out for each other, to be mindful of one another,” Koch said.

In audio of the call to police, Benedict’s mother, Sue Benedict, said she wanted to file charges. The officer who responded can be heard in the hospital video explaining that the teen started the altercation by throwing the water and the court would view it as a mutual fight.

According to a police search warrant, Sue Benedict indicated to police on Feb. 7 that she didn’t want to file charges at that time. She instead asked police to speak to officials at Owasso High School about issues on campus among students.

The Feb. 9 search warrant, which was filed with the court on Feb. 21, also shows investigators took 137 photographs at the school, including inside the girl’s bathroom where the fight occurred. They also collected two swabs of stains from the bathroom and retrieved records and documents of the students involved in the altercation.

While the two-week-old warrant states that police were seeking evidence in a felony murder, the department has since said Benedict’s death was not a result of injuries suffered in the fight, based on the preliminary results of the autopsy.

The police division mentioned it does no longer plan to remark additional at the youngster’s explanation for demise till toxicology and different post-mortem effects are finished.