Newly released body camera footage gives new insight into a fight that took place at an Oklahoma high school just before a non-binary teenager who was bullied died.
Body-camera footage released by the Owasso police department on Friday shows 16-year-old Nex Benedict and their mother speaking with police on 7 February, the same day the teenager visited an area hospital after a fight broke out at their high school, CNN reported.
In the video, Nex, who used he/they pronouns, told the police officer that a group of girls attacked them in a bathroom at Owasso high school.
Nex told the officer that they did not know the girls and that the students had previously mocked how they had dressed before.
“I don’t know these girls,” Nex told the officer.
Nex’s guardian, Sue Benedict, also told the officer that the girls had previously thrown things at Nex and called them names.
Nex said that they were using the bathroom and chatting with friends when the group of students accused Nex of laughing at them.
“I was talking with my friends, they were talking with their friends and we were laughing. And they had said something like, ‘Why do they laugh like that?’ And they were talking about us in front of us,” Nex said.
In response, Nex says that they poured water from their water bottle on to the students. The fighting escalating, with the one of the girls grabbing Nex’s hair. Nex said they pushed one of the girls into a paper towel dispenser. Then, Nex said they were thrown to the ground by a student, as others began to beat them up.
“They got my legs out from under me and got me on the ground and started beating the shit out of me,” Nex told officers. Nex’s friends stepped in to help, but Nex said they were unable to recall further details as they blacked out amid the fighting.
In the video, an officer admitted that the school should have contacted a school resource officer about the altercation and “dropped the ball”.
But the officer warned that Nex had “started the domino effect” by pouring water on the girls, an action that could be seen as assault.
Ultimately, Nex and their guardian decided not to press criminal charges against the group of students.
Nex died on 8 February, the next day. In a 911 call that day, Sue Benedict told first responders that the teenager was having a medical emergency and was “not doing good at all”, CNN reported. The teen’s eyes were rolling into the back of their head and their breathing was shallow, NBC News reported.
Nex’s cause of death has not been determined, with Owasso police claiming that the teenager did not die as a result of trauma from the fight, Tulsa World reported.
Nex’s family has said they are “independently interviewing witnesses and collecting all available evidence”, according to a statement from the family’s lawyer.
The latest video comes amid growing outrage towards Owasso high at its alleged failure to address bullying faced by Nex because of their gender identity.
Sue Benedict told the Independent that Nex was bullied by other students because of their gender identity. Benedict says the bullying began shortly after the Oklahoma governor, Kevin Stitt, signed legislation that banned transgender public school students from using the bathroom that matches their gender identity.
On Monday, nearly 40 students at Owasso high walked out to protest what they have said is a culture of bullying at their school and to show support for the school’s LGBTQ+ population.
