Tag: oklahoma

Nex Benedict, Oklahoma nonbinary teen, died by suicide, medical examiner rules

Nex Benedict, the 16-year-old Oklahoma student who died one day after a fight in a high school bathroom, died by suicide, the state’s medical examiner said on Wednesday. 

The summary report said that Benedict, who identified as nonbinary and used they/them pronouns, died due to the combined toxicity of two different medications. 

“From the beginning of this investigation, Owasso Police observed many indications that this death was the result of suicide,” the Owasso Police Department said in a statement after the report was published. “However, investigators did not wish to confirm that information without the final results being presented by the Oklahoma Medical Examiners Office.”

The day before they died, Benedict was involved in a fight in the girl’s bathroom at Owasso High School. A school nurse sent Benedict to the hospital, where they told police officers that three girls were harassing them. Benedict responded by throwing water at the girls, which prompted the fight.

Keep reading

‘Is that a UFO?’ Oklahoma family spot bizarre other-worldly sighting in night sky

A bizarre other-wordly object was captured on camera by an Oklahoma family in the night sky on Monday night.

A TikTok video that has amassed almost half a million views, shows a bright, slow-moving object in the sky.

Steve Aragona was outside with his kids and his neighbours when the video was captured on Monday at 7.30pm.

In the full-length video given to KFOR by Mr Aragona, people question what the unexplained object could possibly be. A child asks if it is a shooting star, to which an adult responds that it is moving too slow to be one.

Another person asks if it could be a UFO. The object appears to start separating from itself, one person pointed out, while another said that it could be sound waves.

Mr Aragona told KFOR, “Everybody was playing out front, and my neighbour Kevin says, ‘Steve, take a look at this.’”

“I looked up, and this white thing appeared in the sky. Everybody had their opinions about what it was.”

In the TikTok comments, some theorised that it could have been the Space X mission that also occurred on Monday, that set satellites up into orbit on their Falcon 9 rocket from Florida.

However, the satellites took off at 6.56pm ET, an hour and a half after the video was purportedly shot at 7.30pm CT.

Keep reading

Oklahoma school district defends foot and toe-sucking video, says ‘students volunteered to participate’

A video that has been described as “highly disturbing” shows students at Deer Creek High School in Edmond, Oklahoma sucking and kissing on people’s toes during a school fundraising event. The school has also defended the activity in a statement. 

In the video, students are seen lying on their bellies while profusely licking and slobbering on the toes of people sitting down in front of them. 

The incident occurred on Thursday at the school’s Wonderful Week of Fundraising. Students were participating in games against other classes at an assembly called Clash of Classes which was to raise money for Not Your Average Joe Coffee, an organization that employs people with disabilities. 

Deer Creek School District released a statement defending the actions following backlash and explained that student participation was on a volunteer basis and that no faculty or staff members had participated in the toe-sucking event, per Fox 25.

In the statement, the Deer Creek School District said: “On Thursday, February 29, 2024, Deer Creek High School hosted an assembly called the Clash of Classes for students who paid to attend. During this assembly, ninth through twelfth grade students volunteered to participate in various student-organized class competitions, in the spirit of raising money for NYAJ.” 

“All participants in the assembly were students who signed up for the game(s) they played ahead of time. No Deer Creek faculty or staff participated in any of the games during this Clash of Classes assembly. Many dedicated students gave generously of their personal time to achieve this momentous accomplishment, which will serve communities beyond the boundaries of Deer Creek,” it continued. “We would like to thank all of the patrons, businesses and sponsors who contributed to the success of this year’s Wonderful Week of Fundraising.” 

The statement was seemingly not good enough for many users on X who said that it was a sign of the US education system has gone off the rails and homeschooling is needed.

Keep reading

The New York Times Implausibly Implicates Oklahoma’s Bathroom Law in the Death of a Nonbinary Student

Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old Oklahoma student who identified as nonbinary and preferred they/them pronouns, died on February 8, a day after a fight at Owasso High School. It is unclear whether the injuries that Nex suffered in the fight contributed to their death. But in a story published on Wednesday, The New York Times implicitly blames the altercation on an Oklahoma law that requires students to use restrooms that correspond with the sex “identified on the individual’s original birth certificate.” Details that the Times omitted cast doubt on that framing, which The Independent also pushed in a story headlined “Oklahoma Banned Trans Students From Bathrooms. Now a Bullied Student Is Dead After a Fight.”

Nex, whose given name was Dagny, was biologically female, and the fight happened in a girls’ bathroom, where Nex and another student reportedly were assaulted by “three older female students.” Although Nex apparently was bullied for identifying as nonbinary, it looks like the location of the fight was incidental.

That is not the impression left by the Times story. “Anti-Trans Policies Draw Scrutiny After 16-Year-Old’s Death in Oklahoma,” says the headline. The subhead adds that “the student, who did not identify as male or female, according to their family, died a day after an altercation in a school bathroom.” The story is illustrated by a photo of transgender rights activists during a 2023 demonstration at the Oklahoma Capitol. “Under state law,” the caption notes, “students must use the bathroom that aligns with their birth gender.”

Even though that is what Nex was doing at the time of the fight, the second paragraph again cites the law as if it explains the altercation: “Under an Oklahoma law passed in 2022, students must use the bathrooms that align with their birth gender.” The next paragraph notes that the fight happened “in a girls’ bathroom at Owasso High School” but does not acknowledge that Nex was complying with the bathroom law, perhaps because that would require acknowledging Nex’s “birth gender.” Although that information is clearly relevant in this context, the story does not mention it at all.

Reporters J. David Goodman and Edgar Sandoval return to the subject of state policy later in the story:

The death renewed scrutiny of anti-transgender laws passed in the state and rhetoric by Oklahoma officials, including the state superintendent for education, Ryan Walters, whose agency has been forceful in trying to bar what it calls “radical gender theory” in schools.

“It’s dangerous,” Mr. Walters said in a video made by the agency last year. “It puts our girls in jeopardy.”

The video highlighted a fight in a bathroom the previous year in which, according to a lawsuit, a female student was “severely” injured in a fight with a transgender student.

Advocates for nonbinary and transgender students said that the state’s policy on gender and bathrooms had led to more reports of confrontations in schools.

“That policy and the messaging around it has led to a lot more policing of bathrooms by students,” said Nicole McAfee, the executive director of Freedom Oklahoma, which advocates for transgender and gay rights. Students who do not present themselves as obviously male or female find themselves questioned by other students, they said. “There is a sense of, ‘do you belong in here?'”

The cause of Nex’s death remains unclear. The New York Post reports that Sue Benedict, Nex’s mother, said Nex fell and hit their head during the bathroom fight. The Post also quotes the mother of the other victim, who reported seeing the assailants “beating her head across the floor.” But according to a statement that the Owasso Police Department posted on Facebook yesterday, preliminary autopsy findings indicate that Nex “did not die as a result of trauma.” The statement adds that “toxicology results and other ancillary testing results” are still pending and “the official autopsy report will be available at a later date.”

Keep reading

‘I have also faltered’: Judge resigns after sending wild text messages about genitals, boring testimony and ‘pretty’ cops during murder trial

An Oklahoma judge who during a murder trial texted her bailiff over 500 times including making crass remarks about the district attorney’s genitals has resigned.

Rather than face trial that was scheduled to start Monday, court records show Lincoln County District Judge Traci Soderstrom agreed to step down for the bench immediately and not seek further judgeships in the state.

“I promised to uphold the Constitution in a fair, even-handed and efficient manner,” Soderstrom wrote in part in her resignation letter, CBS News reported. “I believe that I have done so. However, being human, I have also faltered.”

During a press conference, Soderstrom acknowledged sending text messages during the trial was wrong.

“I texted during a trial. It doesn’t matter if it was a traffic case, divorce case or first-degree murder case. I texted during a trial, and that was inappropriate,” Soderstrom said, according to local ABC affiliate KOCO.

An investigation concluded that Soderstrom was not paying attention during the jury trial and apparently came to the conclusion that the defendant was innocent of murder. She was overseeing the June 2023 murder trial of Khristian Marzall, who was charged with first-degree murder in the May 2018 death of 2-year-old Braxton Danker. The child’s mother, Judith Danker, pleaded guilty to enabling child abuse in 2019, receiving a 25-year prison sentence. She was the state’s key witness in the trial.

But Soderstrom contended at Friday’s press conference that she did not give up her impartiality during the trial.

Keep reading

Oklahoma State Senator authors bill to limit freedom of the press

If the Oklahoma legislature passes it, the Common Sense Freedom of Press Control Act would place more monitoring requirements and financial obligations on journalists and media outlets.

State Sen. Nathan Dahm (R – Broken Arrow) authored Senate Bill 1837, which seeks to “avoid potential abuse of the freedom of the press.”

Under the proposed requirements, anyone who works for a media outlet would need to submit to criminal background checks and quarterly drug tests.

The bill would also require them to file for a license from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, obtain $1 million in liability insurance, and attend an eight-hour “propaganda-free” safety training developed by PragerU.

The license for individual journalists would cost $290 every five years. Media outlets would also need to pay $250,000 for a license every year and obtain $50 million in liability insurance. That applies to national and local outlets alike.

Those outlets would also be required to provide the following disclaimer before each story, or throughout any video: “WARNING: THIS ENTITY IS KNOWN TO PROVIDE PROPAGANDA. CONSUMING PROPAGANDA MAY BE DETRIMENTAL TO YOUR HEALTH AND HEALTH OF THE REPUBLIC.”

Keep reading

Oklahoma proposal would make watching porn a felony, ban sexting outside marriage

An Oklahoma state senator has proposed a law that would make watching pornography a felony and ban sexting among people who are not married.

The bill, set to be introduced next month by state Sen. Dusty Deevers (R-Elgin), would prohibit consuming or producing sexual content that “lacks serious literary, artistic, educational, political, or scientific purposes or value” in any medium.

The measure defines “obscene material” as the depiction or description of any “acts of sexual intercourse,” including those that are “normal or perverted, actual or simulated.”

Content depicting sodomy and masturbation would also be off the table, in addition to videos, movies, video games and text messages that involve “sadomasochistic abuse” and “acts of excretion in a sexual context.”

Under the measure, pictures of human genitals or women’s breasts would also be banned as well as “lewd exhibition” of the “buttocks.”

It would carry prison sentences of up to a year and $2,000 fines.

Keep reading

Former TPD officer fails to appear in court on new sexual assault charge after initial rape charge from 2022

Tulsa Police announced Deangelo Reyes, a former Tulsa Police officer, has been charged with forcible sodomy.

This is an additional charge along with the first degree rape charge he goes to court for in March 2024. 

Reyes was first charged with rape in June of 2022 after he was accused of sexually assaulting someone while on duty. 

Police said they found an additional victim in the past few months bringing forth the new charge from an alleged incident back in July 2020.

Court records say the new victim was found by searching through phone records that revealed the alleged victim was disabled.

The victim suffered from major neuro cognitive disorder, secondary to severe traumatic brain injury, from a car accident that left her in a coma for three weeks.

Records indicate she was significantly disabled, functioning at a 5th to 6th grade level.

Court Records saying that she met Reyes while jogging where he asked for her phone number.

All while in police uniform, records allege that she would not want to have sex with Reyes and that the only way to get him to go away would be to give him sexual favors.

Keep reading

Oklahoma teen testifies how a former pastor referenced the Bible during abuse

A teen who says she was sexually abused testified for almost two hours on Tuesday. She told the court how a former pastor would dialogue with her about biblical issues while allegedly abusing her.

Fred Gammon, Jr, 42, of Miami, is charged with child sexual abuse.  His trial in Ottawa County began its second day on Wednesday (11//29) before a 7-woman, 5-man jury.

At the time of the alleged abuse, Gammon was serving as Wayside Assembly of God pastor. 

The jury listened to prosecutor Chris Garner methodically question the teen as she outlined the abusive behavior that began when she was 15 years old, allegedly at the hands of Gammon. Three witnesses, including the teen, testified for the state on Tuesday.

The accuser, now 19 years old, is studying to be a missionary at a faith-based college..

“He would come into my bedroom and make small talk about the Bible while touching me,” the teen testified.

The alleged sexual abuse began after Gammon saw photographs of the teen wearing a bikini, according to the accuser’s testimony.

She said they were photographs sent to her boyfriend.

“He treated me differently – he was more interested in me,” according to her testimony.

Keep reading

With Oklahoma’s Hemp Production ‘Way Down,’ Lawmakers Consider Benefits Of Expansion

Oklahoma legislators are studying whether industrial hemp production would benefit rural development in the state.

Growing hemp became legal in Oklahoma after Congress passed the 2018 Farm Bill, which removed industrial hemp from the Controlled Substances Act’s classification of marijuana and declassified hemp as a Schedule I narcotic.

While there was a lot of initial interest in 2018, Oklahoma has seen a decline in interest from potential growers since then, according to Kenny Naylor, the director of Consumer Affairs for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture.

“Unfortunately our numbers have gone way down,” Naylor told the Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee Monday. “In 2018, everybody wanted to grow hemp.”

As of this year, Oklahoma has 21 licensed hemp growers and 22 licensed hemp processors.

Aside from a saturation of the CBD market and limited processing ability, which have both cooled the interest in growing hemp, according to Naylor, other factors were a matter of bad timing.

“I think COVID-19 hit right at the wrong time and shut everything down, and that definitely caused problems,” said Naylor. “And then for Oklahoma specifically, people switched to marijuana.”

It was initially cheaper to get licensed to grow medical marijuana, though Naylor said he doesn’t believe that is the case anymore.

Keep reading