Dive Brief:
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The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is opening an investigation into Oklahoma's Owasso Public Schools, where 16-year-old nonbinary student Nex Benedict died one day after a Feb. 7 physical altercation with other students in a school bathroom.
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The decision was sparked by a request from the Human Rights Campaign, which said Owasso High School — where Benedict was a student — failed to address documented instances of bullying, violence and harassment in violation of Title IX.
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In a March 1 letter to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, OCR said it is also investigating whether the Oklahoma district failed to appropriately respond to alleged harassment of students under Section 504 and Title II, which require an educational institution to respond to disability-based harassment.
Dive Insight:
Benedict's death comes amid spreading anti-LGBTQ+ laws and policies that civil rights advocates say make schools unsafe for nonbinary and transgender students.
Some of those initiatives require schools to notify parents of pronoun changes, prohibit schools from allowing transgender students to use facilities or play on athletic teams aligning with their gender identities, and regulae curriculum related to gender and sexuality.
Oklahoma specifically has considered more than 85 anti-LGBTQ+ legislative proposals since 2015 and has enacted seven, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Those laws include one requiring students at public and charter schools to use restrooms and locker rooms matching the sex on their birth certificates. Similar measures have surfaced in at least 10 states, according to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks anti-LGBTQ+ measures.
"However, efforts to stoke hate and discrimination across the country are having a direct, negative impact on the lives of trans and gender-expansive students," said Kelley Robinson, president of Human Rights Campaign, in a Feb. 21 letter to U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. "This includes young students like Nex, who face harsh social and public environments largely influenced by this discourse that undermines their lives," Robinson wrote.
According to GLSEN, an LGBTQ+ education advocacy organization, 45% of transgender students said they avoided bathrooms because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable, and 82% of LGBTQ+ students said they felt unsafe at school because of their actual or perceived personal characteristics.
"We believe that Nex’s death is the natural consequence of a growing wave of hatred against LGBTQ+ people," Robinson said.
OCR warned in its letter, as it does in all new cases, that "opening the complaint for investigation in no way implies that OCR has made a determination on the merits of the complaint." The Education Department interprets Title IX to protect LGBTQ+ students, and is expected to cement that interpretation into a final rule in the coming weeks.
Owasso Public Schools said it received notice on Friday of the OCR investigation.
"The district is committed to cooperating with federal officials and believes the complaint submitted by HRC is not supported by the facts and is without merit," it said in a statement.
The Owasso Police Department, which is investigating Benedict's death, said preliminary information from the medical examiner's office shows an autopsy "indicated that the decedent did not die as a result of trauma." The cause of death has not yet been determined and is pending. However, Benedict's family is seeking an independent investigation into their death.
The Human Rights Campaign requested in a separate Feb. 21 letter that the U.S. Department of Justice work with the Education Department to investigate Owasso Public Schools. In a press release, it also called for an investigation into the Oklahoma State Department of Education and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, who has been an outspoken critic of the LGBTQ+ community and the federal Education Department's push to protect them.
In a March 3 post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Walters said President Joe Biden "wants to indoctrinate your kids with radical gender theory. We will continue to fight back."
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