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Nearly nine months after the death of nonbinary Choctaw high schooler Nex Benedict in Oklahoma, the U.S. Department of Education announced this week that Owasso Public Schools had repeatedly violated Title IX for years by ignoring reports of sexual harassment and abuse, creating an unsafe learning environment for students.
In a press release on Wednesday from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), officials reported that sexual harassment and related bullying had run rampant at Owasso Public Schools for years, up to and including the February 2024 bathroom fight that preceded Benedict’s death. Investigators found that the district responded “informally and inadequately” to a string of Title IX complaints, which included multiple reports of “sex-based slurs, harassment, and physical assault”; an incident involving sexual harassment of an elementary schooler; and one case of alleged grooming on social media by a teacher, in addition to the attack that hospitalized Benedict. (An autopsy by the state medical examiner later found that Benedict died by suicide, rather than from physical trauma, although some advocates and Benedict’s family called for an independent investigation.)
In all those cases, OCR investigators said, Owasso administrators failed to respond or comply with basic Title IX requirements. The district had only conducted two formal Title IX investigations in the last three school years, they found, and failed to establish an adequate grievance process or keep sufficient records of complaints. Administrators’ “pattern of inconsistent responses” to sexual harassment, investigators wrote, reached the point of being “deliberately indifferent” to students’ and parents’ concerns.
The findings came as little surprise to some locals like Gary Thompson, who told KOTV this week that his grandchildren had witnessed the steady increase in bullying at school. “I’ve heard from my granddaughters that go to middle and high school that there’s issues with a lot of bullying,” Thompson said. “No one has been addressing it […] It’s very disappointing. I hate for any kids to have to go through anything like this. And they shouldn’t have to.”
As a result of the investigation, Owasso Public Schools entered into a voluntary resolution agreement with OCR, which lays out a plan for the district to address those complaints and comply with Title IX requirements. (As part of the agreement, the district did not admit to wrongdoing or liability.) The district agreed to review all past complaints since the 2021-2022 school year and to meet with students who made past complaints and their families to discuss “supportive measures”; will revise its grievance procedures and issue a statement of nondiscrimination; and must conduct a “climate survey” regarding sexual harassment in its schools. It must also submit detailed documentation to OCR regarding its compliance with all parts of the agreement, beginning next year and lasting at least into 2026.
