Oklahoma students walk out over the death of transgender student Nex Benedict

Students in Oklahoma Owasso High School staged a walkout Monday, with 40 students leaving class to protest the death of former student Nex Benedict — and the bullying policies that students believe caused Benedict's death. NBC News References.

Previous reports used their/them pronouns following statements from Benedict's family that said the teenager does not align with the gender binary. “Nex didn't see himself as male or female,” said Benedict's mother, Sue Benedict Independent. “Nex saw himself in the middle.” According to NBC News, several of Benedict's close friends and classmates said the teenager preferred his pronouns and considered himself transgender, but he also used pronouns.

Benedict was attending Owasso High School on Feb. 7 when he was involved in a fight with three older girls. According to body camera footage recently released by the Owasso Police Department, Benedict said he and a friend were bullied for their clothing and that after he threw water on the students who made the comments, they “jumped” him in the bathroom .

“And so I went up there and threw water on them and then all three of them came at me,” Benedict explained to the officer in the released video. “They came at me. My hair caught. I caught on to them. I threw one of them into a paper towel dispenser and then they took my legs out from under me and put me on the ground.”

Benedict collapsed at home and died on February 8, a day after the brawl at school – immediately raising suspicions about the teenager's cause of death. Benedict told officers and medical personnel that he blacked out during the fight, and released footage from the school's hallways also shows Benedict swaying slightly while walking toward administration offices.

Although police and school officials remain closeted, activists and transgender students have blamed Benedict's death and mistreatment on Oklahoma's competitive policies surrounding transgender students. In a statement shared with Rolling rock Last week, a spokesman for the Owasso Police Department said preliminary information from an autopsy indicated Benedict's death was not the result of trauma. Through their lawyers, Benedict's family has already said they will seek an independent investigation into Benedict's death.

Students at the walkout, at least 40 years old, stood outside protesting what they called rampant and ignored bullying problems at the high school. Several who spoke to NBC News reported being called insults and described an internal culture where students felt unable to speak out.

“There were issues of bullying. This time, the bullying has gone so far that a student has passed,” Kane, a walkout organizer, told NBC News. “To me, it doesn't matter if Nex went through traumatic brain injury or if he went through suicide. What matters is the fact that they died after being bullied, and that's the story for so many other students. I almost ended it myself due to bullying. It's not new to so many students.”

“Even if something happened, there's no point in approaching any kind of administration or teachers about it because absolutely nothing will be done,” said Ali, another student. “And I've seen it over and over again with my friends.”