Lawmaker accuses education board and Libs of TikTok of having blood on their hands over Nex Benedict death

An Oklahoma city council member has accused the state’s board of education and Libs of TikTok influencer Chaya Raichik of having “blood on your hands” over the death of nonbinary student Nex Benedict.

Sean Cummings, the vice-mayor of The Village, a suburb of Oklahoma City, told members of the Oklahoma State Board of Education at a Thursday hearing that they had “emboldened” bullying and hatred towards the LGBTQ community and that that discourse may have led to Nex’s death.

“You emboldened these three girls yourself,” Mr Cummings said. “Chaya Raichik emboldened these three girls by being on the library board. It’s already difficult to be in high school. It’s very difficult to be different.”

Nex, 16, died on 7 February, one day after their family say they got into a fight with three girls in a bathroom at Owasso High School, after being bullied for their gender fluid identity.

Mr Cummings told The Independent in an interview afterwards that he felt compelled to speak at the meeting even though his wife Cathy Cummings, a former mayor of The Village, had died earlier this month.

At the Thursday board meeting, Mr Cummings said that the rhetoric from the education board Mr Walters had been “partially responsible” for emboldening bullies to attack Nex in a school bathroom.

“Three older girls don’t just jump a 16-year-old in a bathroom for no apparent reason, especially when they’re from the alphabet community, who you personally have attacked ever since you ran for office,” Mr Cummings said, in a reference to Nex identifying as LGBTQ.

Nex Benedict, 16, died one day after being assaulted in a bathroom at Owasso High School in Oklahoma, police say

Superintendent Walters, who was in attendance at the meeting, appointed anti-LGBTQ