Owasso Public Schools Reach Agreement After Title IX Sexual Harassment Probe

TULSA, OKLA (KTUL) — Owasso Public Schools have reached an agreement over Title IX sexual harassment violations.

This investigation was prompted following the death of Owasso student Nex Benedict who died by suicide following a physical altercation in the Owasso High West Campus school bathroom last year.

Sarah Warbelow, the Vice President of Legal for the Human Rights Campaign, says that after Nex Benedict’s death, it became clear that there was a very serious problem.

She says they wanted to ensure this was thoroughly investigated, and that they were utilizing every measure that the federal government has to bear to bring some degree of justice for all of the students.

“We’re very pleased that the US Department of Education took the allegation seriously and conducted a thorough and in-depth investigation, not only to the experiences of Nex Benedict but many other students throughout the Owasso School District as well, who were subjected to harassment based on, on sex,” said Sarah Warbelow, Vice President of Legal for the Human Rights Campaign.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights says that following their investigation of Owasso Public Schools, they found there were repeated instances over a three-year period, where the school district failed to handle the situation appropriately which include:

• A teacher grooming female students on social media by sending more than 130 messages to them describing their physical appearance and requesting their photographs among other topics.
• A young elementary school student was subjected to repeated harassing remarks that were described as sexual in nature.
• A male student repeatedly hit and made unwelcome sexual comments to a female sixth-grade student at school and on the school bus.
• Multiple students were subjected to repeated sex-based slurs, harassment, and physical assault.

OCR’s findings even determined that the school district failed to take these steps following Benedict’s death by suicide following the altercation in a restroom at Owasso High School.

We reached out to Owasso Public Schools and they responded with a statement saying:

This Agreement does not constitute an admission that the District is not in compliance with Title IX and/or the 2020 Title IX regulation” and “the District does not admit it knew of acts of harassment in its programs and activities that were so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it deprived any student of access to the educational benefits of opportunities provided by the District.