Education Department To Investigate School District After Nex Benedict’s Death

The U.S. Department of Education is opening an investigation into whether or not the Oklahoma college district the place a 16-year-old transgender scholar, Nex Benedict, died after a battle in a highschool restroom, failed to reply appropriately to sex-based harassment, based on a letter addressed to the Human Rights Campaign.

The Human Rights Campaign, one of many nation’s largest LGBTQ+ rights teams, filed complaints with the Department of Education and the Department of Justice following Benedict’s loss of life on Feb. 8.

Benedict died sooner or later after a battle with three different Owasso High School college students, placing a highlight on the tradition of worry and harassment dealing with LGBTQ+ college students in Oklahoma and past.

“This letter is to notify you that the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR), is opening for investigation the above-referenced complaint that you filed against the Owasso Public Schools (the District),” wrote Karen Mines, the Education Department’s regional director, in a letter to the HRC. “Your complaint alleges that the District discriminated against students by failing to respond appropriately to sex-based harassment, of which it had notice, at Owasso High School during the 2023-2024 school year.”

The letter additionally notes that the Office for Civil Rights will examine whether or not the district didn’t comply with Title IX pointers when responding to sex-based harassment. Current Title IX regulation contains language that protects transgender college students in any college or instructional program that receives federal funding.

The college district in Owasso didn’t instantly reply to HuffPost’s request for remark.

In the times for the reason that information broke about Benedict’s loss of life, dozens of organizations have accused Oklahoma’s state superintendent, Ryan Walters, of making a hostile surroundings for LGBTQ+ and two-spirit college students.

The conservative superintendent has confronted backlash for appointing Chaya Raichik, the girl behind the far-right social media account Libs of TikTook, to a voluntary seat on the state’s library evaluation committee. In 2022, Libs of TikTook focused one among Benedict’s eighth-grade academics, Tyler Wrynn, prompting them to resign due to the harassment.

On Wednesday greater than 300 advocacy and LGBTQ+ organizations referred to as for Walters’ speedy removing, stating that his option to appoint Raichik, in addition to his emergency rule to dam a trans Oklahoma teen from altering his gender on his college data, have created a “culture where rampant harassment of 2SLGBTQ+ students has been allowed to go unchecked.”