Editor’s note: This story contains a discussion of suicide. Help is available if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters. In the US: Call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
After the suicide of a nonbinary student last February spurred a monthslong federal investigation, the US Department of Education found Title IX violations in an Oklahoma public school district including multiple failures to respond to notices of sexual harassment.
The DOE’s Office of Civil Rights announced a resolution Wednesday with the Owasso Public School District to remedy Title IX violations linked to sexual harassment in district schools.
The investigation found a pattern of inconsistent district responses to sexual harassment complaints that were, at times, “deliberately indifferent to students’ civil rights.”
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects people from discrimination based on sex in federally funded education programs.
The OCR investigation began last March, weeks after the death of nonbinary teen, Nex Benedict. The 16-year-old died a day after a fight with other students in an Owasso High School bathroom.
Benedict, whose injuries from the fight sent them to the hospital, told officers and family members at the time that the other students had been bullying them and their friends before the fight broke out, CNN previously reported.
A formal complaint filed by the Human Rights Campaign regarding Benedict’s death prompted the OCR investigation into whether the district “failed to appropriately respond to alleged harassment.”
At the urging of LGBTQ+ advocates, police body camera footage of Benedict recounting the altercation to an officer at the hospital was released in the weeks after their death along with 911 calls and surveillance video from the incident.
The school district failed to take steps required under Title IX after Benedict died, Wednesday’s report says, including failing to conduct a Title IX investigation into the bathroom fight because “nobody at the District was aware that the fight or conduct leading up to the fight constituted potential sexual harassment.”
“As a result, OCR found that the district’s pattern of inconsistent responses to reports it received of sexual harassment – infrequently responding under Title IX or not responding at all – rose to the level that the district’s response to some families’ sexual harassment reports was deliberately indifferent to students’ civil rights,” a news release from DOE reads.
School officials received 15 reports of harassment and bullying that could constitute sexual harassment against Benedict from community members and another student in the two weeks following the February 7 incident. Most of the reports said the teen was bullied for their sex or gender, and one report described “a school environment and culture that promotes bullying and abuse especially when it comes to LGBTQ+ students,” according to the OCR report.
CNN reached out to a representative for Benedict’s family for comment on the report.
The investigation also identified several other instances in the last three years when district staff failed to properly respond to sexual harassment complaints.
In one instance, the district failed to respond to a report of a teacher grooming female students on social media “through sending more than 130 messages to them describing their physical appearance and requesting their photographs, among other topics.”
Another report said a young elementary school student was “subjected to repeated harassing remarks that were described as sexual in nature.”
“Following investigation, OCR determined that the district has a practice of handling reports of sexual harassment of students informally and inadequately,” the news release says.
The agreement between the DOE and the school district requires the district to implement new policies and procedures and additional training for staff and students.
In a statement announcing the agreement, Owasso Superintendent Margaret Coates said the district is committed to fulfilling the requirements that will enhance safety and inclusivity at the schools.
“While we continue to believe the original complaint made to OCR was based on inaccurate information, OPS understands the importance for the district to remain in compliance with Title IX regulations in regard to policies, procedures, training, and documentation,” Coates’ statement said.
