AOK STATEMENT ON THE TRAGIC DEATH OF NEX BENEDICT
Nex Benedict was a sixteen-year-old gender non-conforming student who attended Owasso High school.
Our Coalition learned over the last few days of the tragic death of 16-year-old Nex Benedict, an Owasso High School student and citizen of the Choctaw Nation. According to media reports, Nex identified as gender non-conforming and has experienced bullying and abuse related to their gender identity for over a year. Nex’s death happened following a violent altercation where Nex was attacked by multiple older students in the bathroom at school.
Our hearts are broken for Nex’s family and friends, and the entire community of students across Oklahoma who grieve this tragic loss.
While it isn’t clear from the facts yet whether the attack stemmed from bullying about Nex’s gender, the result has led many LGBTQ students across Oklahoma to feel terror and apprehension about going to school.
The environment in Oklahoma surrounding LGBTQ students in schools has grown to a fever pitch this year. Superintendent Ryan Walters and the Oklahoma State Board Education have continued to marginalize any child who presents their authentic self at school, particularly trans children. Perhaps the most provocative example of the Department’s disregard for the safety of children in Oklahoma’s schools is the addition of extremist online personality, Chaya Raichik, to an official state advisory committee on library books.
Raichik makes a living targeting teachers on the internet for sport. Her conduct has emboldened others to issue bomb threats against our schools. Her rhetoric is targeted, deliberate, and designed to invoke extreme reactions, for which she refuses to acknowledge her role.
Raichik is the creator behind Libs of TikTok and has openly attacked multiple Oklahoma teachers and a school librarian. Last fall, her behavior on TikTok led directly to over a week of bomb threats at a Union Public Schools elementary school. Children as young as five were learning bomb drills and asking their parents why strangers would want to bomb their school. Violence and threats have become the norm in Oklahoma’s public education landscape, and now we have a student who has lost their life. Enough is enough.
We believe in creating safe, supportive schools where every child can be their authentic, individual self, without fear for their mental or physical safety. Unless and until the State Department of Education dissociates completely with Chaya Raichik, children in Oklahoma will continue to be at risk of serious harm as a result of Raichik’s extremist rhetoric and the reactions it provokes in her followers.
We call on State Superintendent Ryan Walters to take his responsibilities as an elected official seriously and get divisive and confrontational Tik Tok influencers out of our state government immediately.
We ask for accountability on three levels:
State Superintendent Ryan Walters and Chaya Raichik stop the online bullying behavior that has led our state to become a hotbed of divisive, violent rhetoric;
If Ms. Raichik cannot commit to stopping the online behavior cited above, that she step down from her role on the Oklahoma Library Media Advisory Committee
That Oklahomans recognize the continuing harm created by this rhetoric and use their collective power to stop it.
Superintendent Walters, you can and must change course. You can and must focus on the business of making Oklahoma schools safe and supportive for all our kids.
We continue to believe that the majority of Oklahomans do not wish harm on children. Nex Benedict deserved to be safe and supported in their school. We mourn Nex’s death and we demand better for kids attending our public schools every day.
Advance Oklahoma’s Kids Coalition
Signer Members:
Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition
Restorative Justice Institute of Oklahoma
Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice
My Brother’s Keeper
Oklahoma Council for Indian Education
Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy
Generation Citizen
Advance Oklahoma’s Kids is a coalition of parents, kids, non-profit organizations, and educational associations that advocate for fully funded public schools and fair treatment for all of Oklahoma’s students. Learn more at advanceokkids.org.
