I don't know if this is allowed in this topic area, but I saw this today, and it affected me. Oklahoma nonbinary teen (16 years old) was beaten to death in the bathroom by three older girls. Originally they were able to get up with help according to an anonymous friend, but when they were taken to the hospital by their grandmother after school, they left and had to be returned to the hospital the following day, and then died due to apparent brain trauma.
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/02/tee ... ambulance/
Did as much research as I could with multiple sources. A lot of news sources are getting their identity wrong, some are getting their name wrong, and the most recent error found, which is in this article too (though corrected in the post later on), is that this teen is of the Choctaw nation, not the Cherokee. But, it's just a really sad situation that shouldn't have happened. This school does have a lot of issues like this, just not this extreme typically (from my research).
Also, keep in mind official notifications/data may change versus unofficial/what people are saying because this is an ongoing investigation. Regardless of what the real story is, I can personally say that I feel sad that this individual faced everything they faced and that their death was so early in life. Didn't get a chance to live much, before they were gone.
**Update (I'm also leaving the original information here as a kind of data point): Anyway, more facts have come out about this case, so I just wanted to share them.
Here's a website that has the surveillance footage from the school, the 911 call, and the interview with Nex Benedict in the hospital.
https://www.newson6.com/story/65d9205ff ... y-of-fight
What has been determined is that this was a fight where there had been previous bullying/harassment, which escalated into Nex Benedict pouring water on the girls due to the girls harassing Nex and their friend. Then, the fight began, which ended with Nex on the floor. From the videos it is clear, that Nex could walk away from the fight without help, however, they did seem a bit wobbly.
Police are claiming that there is no evidence (as per the medical examiner) of Nex's death being caused by head trauma. However, not all the medical reports have been released. So, I would not conclude anything just yet on that front.
Also, two other corrections, Nex's mother was of the nation of Choctaw, but Nex had no membership in the tribe. Second, I cannot confirm, but it may be that Nex's identity is transgender rather than nonbinary (meaning they prefer the pronouns he/him or sometimes they/them). I've seen mixed information on this.
Anyway, I think this is an example of the nature of news being that they want to get the information out as fast as possible (if they decide they want to report on it), while not getting all the facts right in ongoing cases. To me, the waters still seem murky about this case.
Regardless, the original reason I was affected by this story, was because it was shocking to see someone so young die from bullying (at least, that's the first case I'd come across in a while). Also, due to personal experiences that caused me to be able to sympathize with Nex's struggles. It highlighted to me that things have escalated in American culture to the point where LGBT people are dying now in ways that were not as common before, which is a bad sign to me.