A photograph of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager who died a day after a fight in a high school bathroom, is projected during a candlelight service at Point A Gallery, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, in Oklahoma City.
More important, school districts around the country were put on notice: Every student — regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity — deserves a safe learning environment.Instead, the student faced an environment very similar to the one Nabozny encountered 25 years earlier. An environment our courts have already ruled was unacceptable. An environment that may have cost Nex their life.
Recently Lambda Legal joined 350 other local, state and national organizations in an open letter calling for the removal of Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public instruction, Ryan Walters. In the letter, Walters is accused of creating an environment in Oklahoma schools hostile to LGBTQ students, which the organizations say led to the attack on Nex.
Whether or not the state replaces him, a civil suit against the district where Nex attended school, in the Tulsa suburb of Owasso, seems likely. There’s also the question of holding those who attacked Nex accountable.