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“Never let a good tragedy go to waste” is an unspoken creed of the radical progressive left, and in the case of Nex Benedict in Oklahoma, this credo has been at work hard in recent weeks.
Indeed, the radical progressive Democratic Party’s grotesquely distorted narrative surrounding the death of a teenage girl in Oklahoma last month has become a source of significant national media attention.
But this child’s memory and the truth of what actually happened to her are collateral damage from the woke mob and the corporate media’s efforts to smear school choice, traditional values, and the Oklahomans who believe in them. This is just the latest example.
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The left-wing story goes like this. A girl who identified herself as non-binary was beaten in the bathroom of an Owasso high school. She later tragically died from her injuries as a result of her hateful comments from conservative leaders across the country. These leaders led others to cause violence against her. This story was spun for weeks without any evidence or evidence.
Nex Benedict’s death was ruled a suicide. File: In this image provided by Maria Pira, Nex Benedict poses outside his family’s home in Owasso, Oklahoma, in December 2023. (Sue Benedict, via AP)
They continue to try to co-opt this narrative into a narrative of martyrdom, claiming that this all comes from a so-called “climate of hate and bigotry,” and as new information pours in about harassment in Oklahoma’s public schools. He claimed that there was. values that the Oklahoma State Department of Education has worked to re-instill in public education.
That’s not an exaggeration at all. If left-wing opinion headlines are to be believed, this tragedy was a direct and inevitable result of forcing students to use bathrooms that corresponded to biological reality.
In response, hundreds of LGBT organizations and activists called for my resignation. Now, as then, I intend to disappoint the woke mob and give them every reason to run back to their keyboards and spin even more disingenuous rhetoric.
But facts – as John Adams reminds us – are stubborn things. And the facts of this case turned out to be very inconvenient for the story peddler. It is still unclear exactly why Benedict was beaten in that bathroom.
There is no good enough reason to justify a physical altercation. The details are vague at best, but the motive isn’t something to guess or come up with out of thin air. Additionally, body camera footage released in the aftermath of the incident shows Benedict admitting to starting the altercation.
Law enforcement officials also said they believe Benedict did not die from trauma. Finally, and most damningly, deeper reporting on the matter revealed allegations of a horrific history of parental sexual abuse and psychological trauma that goes beyond just school bullying. However, the media and activist leaders have yet to acknowledge their gross manipulation of this young woman’s suffering.
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Let’s be honest about what’s really going on here. This is not about the death of a teenager. It’s not really about bullying. This is an excuse to attack the traditional values and educational freedom agenda that the people of Oklahoma have chosen me to fight for. The mob took the first news story they could use for their purposes and ran with it. that’s it. That’s why the facts didn’t matter, the story was what they needed.
Tragically, Nex took his own life. According to the medical examiner’s report in March.
People gather outside the Stonewall Inn on February 26, 2024 in New York City. A memorial and wake for Nex Benedict, a non-binary Oklahoma teenager who passed away. (Spencer Pratt/Getty Images)
The bottom line is that as educators, the safety of our students has always been our top priority, from the first day we walked into the classroom until now. I never tolerated bullying for any reason when I was a teacher, and I will never tolerate bullying as the superintendent.
Oklahoma public school teachers and administrators with different ideas on this topic are always welcome to find other employment. But I make no apologies for representing the values of the Oklahoma voters who elected me. I make no apologies for working to serve the needs and interests of the parents and students I serve.
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I’m not afraid of politics. When I decided to go into this business, I knew I would be attacked and I knew I would be lied to. Nevertheless, it remains despicable that some people would brazenly use a horrific event like the death of a child to sow political discord for personal gain. It is even more despicable that so many people will willfully and willfully turn away from facts, simple reason, and basic human dignity in order to maintain what was once contradicted.
This mob and its overzealous propaganda will change the fact of Benedict’s death, just as no amount of bile and misinformation spewed into the public square can change the simple reality of human biology. I can not do it.
