What Happened Nex

 Tragically, this is not a new story. At least in terms of the institutional cruelty and communal savagery that exists when it comes to trans youth. Sixteen year old Nex Benedict died a day after a fight in the bathroom in their high school bathroom. During the altercation, Nex's head hit the floor. Nex was suspended from the school and was sent home. They were dead a day later. 

School officials, who chose not to report the incident at the time of the fight have "launched an investigation" into the circumstances surrounding this child's death. A school resource officer went to the hospital only after they were summoned by police to the hospital where Nex was pronounced dead. 

A day after the fight. 

This happened in Owasso, Oklahoma. Oklahoma's governor has signed several bills that required students to use bathrooms that match their sex assigned at birth citing safety, banned the use of nonbinary gender markers on IDs, restricted gender-affirming care and banned transgender girls from participating in girls' sports citing fairness. Oklahoma's governor, Kevin Stitt, maintains a close relationship with Libs of TikTok, a group that churns out anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric with baseless accusations and fear. 

To suggest that this environment had nothing to do with Nex's death is unconscionable. Not just in Oklahoma, but across these less-than-United States. So an investigation, led by the school district and government authorities who maintain these intolerant views, will be made. The school's website has already made their case: “Students were in the restroom for less than two minutes and the physical altercation was broken up by other students who were present in the restroom at the time, along with a staff member who was supervising outside of the restroom.”

Perhaps from my own interest in what lies beneath the rocks on Al Gore's Internet, I chose to review a few of the comments beneath one of the articles describing Nex's death. I was happily surprised to find that most of the discussion centered around loss of a young person. The curious bits came from the qualifying statements that preceded some of the sentiments: "I don't support this trans-stuff, but..." Accounts of students being bullied for any number of reasons tend to bring out sympathy for the victim, but in this case it is far too late. Where was the care for Nex when they needed it most?

Maybe the investigation will bring some measure of justice. That would be nice. But it would also be too late.