New HRC Paid Ad Features Testimony from a Recent Owasso High School Grad: “Look around at what happened to students like Nex Benedict. That’s the gravity of the situation.”

WASHINGTON - The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization, today released powerful video testimony from Marley H., an Owasso High School grad and Oklahoman speaking to the culture of harassment and bullying she witnessed firsthand during her time in the Owasso school district, how it impacted her and her fellow students, and what she sees as the way forward for the district and state. The video's release comes as we mark two months since the death of Nex Benedict, a 16 year-old Owasso nonbinary student of Choctaw heritage who died after being assaulted in their school bathroom and bullied and harassed for over a year.

In this new video, which HRC will be promoting with a paid investment on social platforms, Marley speaks from her heart about what she and her fellow students experienced at Owasso High School, including bullying, the use of anti-LGBTQ+ slurs, harassment, and - worse still - teachers and administrators who refused to step in and disrupt this cycle of hate.

"It hurts to know that not only do your teachers personally not support you, if a student bullies you or harasses you or calls you names, they aren't going to do anything about it," said Marley H., who graduated from Owasso High School in 2022. "It promotes a culture where you feel like you shouldn't report issues."

She later adds, "We are seeing this 'trickle-down effect' where we elect people that spew this rhetoric, and even pass [anti-LGBTQ+] legislation… and then those parents in the community see this on the news, and then they talk about it in the home… That rhetoric that is being passed down from our elected officials to our parents to our children then affects entire school districts."

Last month, the U.S. Department of Education informed HRC president Kelley Robinson that the department will open an investigation in response to HRC's letter regarding Owasso Public Schools and its failure to respond appropriately to sex-based harassment that may have contributed to the tragic death of Nex Benedict. This investigation was triggered by a formal complaint made by Robinson, who wrote to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and asked his department to use the enforcement mechanisms at its disposal to prevent similar tragedies from taking place in the future and to help hold accountable those responsible for Nex's tragic death.

"We've heard many students at Owasso and elsewhere in Oklahoma speak truth to power and stand up against the culture of bullying and harassment fostered by people like Ryan Walters," said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign. "Marley's story breaks our hearts as much as it angers us. There is a way forward, however. Each time someone speaks out about what they have seen, experienced, or heard, the truth becomes harder and harder to deny. The first step on the journey to healing is for Ryan Walters to go."

In March, HRC launched "Walters Watch," part of a high-impact accountability campaign to hold Ryan Walters, Oklahoma's Superintendent of Public Instruction, accountable for his extremist rhetoric and mis-management of Oklahoma schools, contributing to the culture of bullying and harassment. Whether he is appointing far-right figures like "LibsOfTikTok" creator Chaya Raichik to state boards or demonizing teachers' unions, Walters seems dead-set on using his role as Superintendent as a political stepping-stone rather than taking seriously his responsibility to Oklahoma students.

The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ+ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.

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