The family has also filed a suit against the Saratoga High School District, alleging that educators did not do enough to prevent the cyberbullying they claim led to their daughter's death. In interviews with police later, they admitted, to varying degrees, coloring half of her face black, then pulling down her bra, taking off her shorts and drawing scribbles, lines and circles on her breasts and nipples. Finally, how do you instill in impulse-driven teens of both sexes the knowledge that whatever they record on their phones and send can reach the entire world and stay public forever? The Audrie Pott Foundation was also created by Pott's father, mother and stepmother, giving scholarships to students in the Bay Area hoping to pursue art and music. When she returned to school, she missed classes to avoid people and had an argument with one of her closest friends, Kathy Atabakhsh, who accused her of becoming a different person. Arguably, the Steubenville rape would never have been prosecuted without the video. [13], A documentary film titled Audrie & Daisy, about the sexual assaults and social media bullying of Audrie Pott and Daisy Coleman, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016. She was engaged in a frantic attempt to discover what had happened to her body. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. In 2009, Jill Naber, a freshman at Saratogas sister school, Los Gatos High School, committed suicide. Audrie Pott was born on May 27th, 1997. Three male classmates allegedly helped an inebriated Audrie to a bedroom before stripping her naked, drawing over her body and sexually assaulting her. ', Hayes decided some of her fellow students misunderstand rape. The Pott family is trying to push for stricter cyber-bullying laws. One Saratoga mother of a teen boy and girl, Selena Kellinger, says shes talking to both her kids about the issue. Nothing remotely would cause her to do this, Allard said. With Saratoga High in communication-lockdown mode because of the threat of a lawsuit, and administrators refusing to speak even to the community, parents are on their own as far as what they are supposed to do or say to their kids. Grief counselors were brought in. . Loss: Audrie Pott, 15, killed herself last year after she was allegedly sexually assaulted at a party. During the night, Audrie became drunk, and was dragged upstairs to a bedroom where 2-3 teenage boys started to rip her clothes and sexually assault her. A year after a popular California student was bullied and humiliated to the point that she took her own life, new details have emerged, helping to piece together the tragic timeline of events as a means of understanding why the beautiful, bright 15-year-old would commit suicide, writer Nina Burleigh reveals in a powerful piece in Rolling Stone. Many are too humiliated to stay in school. She walked across the kitchen and down the long carpeted hall to the bathroom door adjoining Audries room. Evidence of this disturbing new technology was made apparent in the recent rape case in Steubenville, Ohio, where images of a passed-out young women being digitally penetrated were passed out to classmates of the Ohio town, famous for its football team. Audrie, who had gone to a house party in Saratoga on Labor Day weekend, had too much to drink and fell asleep in a bedroom and woke up to the worst nightmare imaginable, according to her familys lawyer, Robert Allard. I said, Please dont send sexts if you get caught, its pornography. On April 11th, seven months after Audries suicide, the Santa Clara County sheriff arrested the three boys on charges of misdemeanor sexual battery, felony possession of child pornography and felony sexual penetration. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP). She was extremely angry that an image was captured and it was being disseminated. Her devastated parents blame her death on the horrific sexual attack a week earlier at the hands of three teenage boys who then allegedly tried to cover up their involvement. Because of their ages and status as minors at the time of the incident, the three teenagers were not at first publicly identified. But the story that things went viral, that the picture went up on Facebook, it is flat untrue. The door was locked. But her friends noticed cuts on her arm, which she claimed were due to a broken vase on her mothers couch. She had problems like any other high-schooler. There are those who think the boys involved should be severely punished and whose anger has sometimes reached vigilante-threat proportions. It was hard for her to hear that from a close friend.'. Audrie's story swept across the country Friday, echoing recent cases in Nova Scotia, Canada, and Steubenville, Ohio, involving drinking, sexual assault and online photos. . California prosecutors are limited by a statute requiring a sexual assault committed by a minor age 14 and over to be forcible in order to directly qualify for adult court. Her father and stepmother, Lisa, thought she was basically a happy kid, but Audries friends got earfuls about how she fought with her stepmom. Audrie Pott, a student at Saratoga High School in Silicon Valley, hanged herself in her bathroom on Sept. 10, 2012, only a week after passing out drunk at a party where she said boys she had known for years took off her clothes, sexually assaulted her and took images of the attack on their phones. She had been sexually assaulted at a party eight days earlier by three 16-year-old boys she knew, and pictures of her were posted online with . As part of the terms of settlement, two of the boys were required to verbally apologize in open court, admit again to the sexual assault, admit to their role in the death of Audrie Pott, agree to being filmed in a documentary, pay a combined $950,000, support the petition for an honorary diploma for Audrie Pott, and give ten presentations on sexual assault and sexting. He would pick one person to make fun of for a few weeks, then move on to another, Amanda says. Audrie Pott Foundation Public speakers.Sexual Assault education.Non-profit dedicated to memory of 15 y/o Audrie, died by suicide 2012, raped by 3 classmates #foraudrie Posts Videos Tagged Related Photo: Courtesy Audrie Pott Foundation. In court documents filed by attorney Philip Pereira on behalf of one of Pott's unnamed attackers, the boy claims that Lawrence and Sheila Pott failed to act on the girl's 'long-standing and serious emotional problems before her suicide and they should have sought professional help.'. Audrie Pott, 15, hanged herself on Sept. 10, 2012, eight days after a party in which she says she was sexually assaulted and was drawn on using markers. Over the course of the next week, Audrie learned that cellphone photos had been taken of her during the assault and shared with students at the school she attended with the three attackers. Audrie was invited to a party on September 3, 2012, which included many other teenagers, along with having alcoholic beverages available. April 15, 2013 12 AM PT. I ruined my life and I don't even remember how. The messages show her pleading with Joe to delete the pictures. Friends said that Pott struggled with body issues, and was self-conscious of her body, only eating when no one else was around. Bill wrote anal above her ass with an arrow pointing down. Half the people have seen her naked, half the people think shes a whore, and judge and bully her. The brown-eyed girl who loved horses, art and pranks would never breathe on her own again. They hear about it.. Then three boys shed known since middle school Bill, Joe and Ron and one of their friends, Mary, helped her upstairs into a bedroom (the names of these four have been changed because of the boys status in a juvenile case). That night, Audrie again confronted Joe on Facebook, accusing him of sharing the photos. They are goofy and silly. When she woke up the next morning, Audrie didnt know how shed gotten into the bedroom or where her clothes were. Whats that? she asked. Partygoers also said they saw her making out with two different boys. They also took turns scribbling crass comments with a black permanent marker all over her naked body. Five years after teenager Audrie Pott ended her own life to relieve the stress and shame of a sexual assault in Saratoga, California, her grieving family still holds out hope for closure, healing a Saratoga, Calif. A few days after Audrie Pott killed herself, while her baffled parents were grieving and students across the Saratoga High School campus wore her favorite color, teal, in h She had been sexually assaulted at a party eight days earlier by three 16-year-old boys she knew, and nude pictures of her were posted online with accompanying bullying. Photo via Facebook. Sheila Pott poses with a portrait of her daughter Audrie in Los Altos, Calif., ON May 23, 2013. [7] Three 16-year-old boys whom she knew eventually pleaded guilty to and served time in juvenile hall for the sexual assault. It would have been so hard for Audrie to go back to school. They photographed themselves sexually assaulting her and, by the time she started her sophomore year at Saratoga High School two days later, scores of students had seen the images. In Nova Scotia, Rehtaeh Parsons, 17, was taken off life support and died this April, three days after her mother discovered her hanging in the bathroom of their Halifax home. A friend told Rolling Stone that for the years leading up to her death, Pott had body issues, perhaps stemming from her early development of 34DD breasts at age 13. The boys are just so stupid. According to her mother, the teen got drunk at a party in 2011 and was gang-raped by four boys, who snapped a picture of the scene and posted it online. 3 of 15 4 of 15 Photo of Audrie Pott provided by the Pott family. [8] Markers were also used to draw and write on her body, and photographs were taken and distributed via social network and MMS. The ability to record and communicate gang-sex assaults has added a new enhancement to an old and ugly crime against women. Opinion: Colorado farms going fallow? This is the worst day of my life, read another. As Audries mother hunted for clues, a female sheriffs deputy assigned to patrol Saratoga High School began hearing whispers that at least one graphic and humiliating photo of Audrie was racing through social media. And I thought she was drunk. And She made out with two boys. She was drunk and Im sure she liked it. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act effectively means that no Internet provider can be forced to take down content for invading a persons privacy or even defaming them. With no assault, with no cyberbullying, Audrie is in art class right now, Larry Pott said at the April news conference, choking back tears. They cant not. From Instagram to Snapchat to texting, young people with raging hormones and low impulse control are passing around what amounts to child pornography. She messaged one boy, vowing to kill him if he still had the images. Find Audrie Pott stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. The three teens, aged 16 to 17, pleaded guilty to the attack and taking photos in . On September 14th, the police pulled Bill out of class and interviewed him at school, then criminally cited him with a misdemeanor, handing him over to his fathers custody. Two weeks after Audries death, Saratoga High School Principal Paul Robinson dismissed claims that bullying had anything to do with her suicide. Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeffrey Rosen declined to comment on the specifics of Audries case. ", As a rebuttal, the Potts' family lawyer, Robert Allard, responded in a statement: "Nothing remotely would cause her to do this. And she remembered the green ink shed noticed around her daughters cleavage, weird markings that Audrie had refused to explain. "We are hopeful that everyone understands that these boys, none of whom have ever been in trouble with the law, are to be regarded as innocent. This is a mean group of kids, Sheila recalls one teacher telling her. But recent Saratoga High graduate Jessica Hayes describes a school environment where disrespecting girls is neither rare nor effectively addressed. Thoughts from Audrie Pott are written on paper in her home in Saratoga, Calif. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP). . We want to hear it. Sheila sprinted down the hall, back into the kitchen, grabbed a knife and cut her daughter down, trying to remember how to perform CPR while dialing 911. Thoughts from Audrie Pott are written on paper in her home in Saratoga, Calif. writer Nina Burleigh reveals in a powerful piece in Rolling Stone, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. The summer before her death, Audrie had started to change, moving away from the kids shed hung out with since middle school. The foundation says they hope to one day have the resources to stop cyberbullying. On the night of the attack, a group of teenagers were at a friend's house drinking heavily. Police found new pictures of other nude teen girls on some of their phones, prompting them to add on new charges in July. You need to come back to reality, Kathy told her. Amanda couldnt give her any clues, other than to say shed seemed very bombed. She called me to come get her, and I was surprised because it was earlier than usual, Sheila recalls. She began missing school so much that she flunked a class. Bill had a reputation as a troublemaker, while Ron was more of a sweet guy. The family divulged some of the Facebook messages their very private daughter sent in her last days, deciding it was better, in the wake of her suicide, to reveal the details of what happened than to hide. In police interviews, the teenagers admitted to coloring half of her face black with marker, then pulling down her bra, taking off her shorts and drawing on her breasts and near her genitals. When they arrested the boys, police seized new phones and other electronic gadgetry their parents had bought to replace what authorities took in the fall. "I have a reputation for a night I don't even remember, and the whole school knows," Pott wrote to a friend in a message on Facebook days before she took her own life. Another girl loudly pointed out in class that Audrie had been cutting herself, and the teenager burst out crying. When she kneed him, she was disciplined. When I speak to students, I tell boys that if a young woman isnt of age, she isnt capable of giving informed consent, and if shes drunk or high, theres no informed consent. Most disturbing is the attempt to link (Audries) suicide to the specific actions of these three boys. Her choice: bra. When my daughter was in high school, girls were taking pictures of themselves topless, and of course that goes around, says Kellinger. 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