The app for independent voices
“Nex Benedict did not die by suicide…”
Riddle me this - I was reading an article from NBC News (see end of post for the article), which arduously suggests that Nex Benedict's death has been ruled a ‘suicide, according to a medical examiner's report.
This was not suicide! Nex Benedict's death was sheer murder, after an incident which stemmed from Nex being bullied at their high school, whereby 3 students essentially jumped on Nex after the latter defended their friends from these bullies!
Supposedly, the Owasso Police Department released footage recently, declaring that Nex's death was “not the result of trauma” (the math really ain't mathing there), but hear this! It's also since been decreed that the fight hasn't been ruled out at contributing to the teens’ death!
Honestly, Nex, and all non binary and transgender students, deserve better - no student should have to worry about going to school and fear being bullied, I can't help but wonder, though; where's the accountability? What are the Parents that are obviously instilling in their children who think they're entitled to make other young people's lives an actual misery? How miserable are they themselves for thinking they can belittle and mock?
I mean, we know, from what's already been established that Nex and their friends were berated and mocked by other students? For laughing and talking differently? No! I honestly can't understand any of it; I only know that Nex and any other LGBTQIA+ youth that has been bullied deserves so much better, which I reiterated in a poem that I recently published here (see my previous post, titled “Nex Benedict Should Still Be Alive”), because let's be honest, they should well be! Urgh, I'm honestly just so disappointed that the “authorities” and “officials” could actually be doing to ‘condemn’ what happened to Nex, but no, it honestly feels like they're beating around the proverbial bush by saying that it was suicide which ended Nex's life, not trauma, but of course the trauma would've played a part!!
Debate aside, either way, to quote ‘Kane’, a fellow non binary student and activist, one of the campaigners for the ‘Walkout’ at Owasso High School, to protest unpunished bullying, ‘It doesn't matter if Nex passed from a traumatic brain injury or if they passed from suicide, what matters is; they died from getting bullied, and that is the story for so many other students. I've been close to ending it myself because of bullying. It's not new for so many students…”
Kane, you deserve better, the many other students do, too. It's been said on multiple occasions that the Schools aren't doing anything, this is simply not even close to being good enough! Something has honestly got to give, truly! I do also think, as I mentioned, that Parents need to also be held accountable, for I feel like they should be instilling better into their kids, effectively telling their kids that bullying isn't on, though I'd honestly hope they should know this, but no! I mean, honestly, where does anyone get off making fun of anyone's laugh or fashion sense?
Where's the pretence? Would they (the bullies parents), appreciate it if their kids are essentially being torn to shreds? Although I suppose this them raises the question, maybe the Parents themselves are the ones instilling this shitty mindset, which would honestly make me weep for humanity even more! A lot needs to be done, no more deaths from bullying! No more bullying! You'd think it's honestly common sense: it's not hard to be kind, for goodness sake!
References:
U.S. News: “Death of transgender student Nex Benedict ruled suicide by medical examiner….” written by Jo Yurcaba and Matt Lavietes, 14th March, 2024.