Frederick Reese
In Saratoga, Calif., 15-year-old Audrie Pott committed suicide after allegedly being sexually abused and bullied. While the circumstances behind this situation were tragic, it was compounded by the seemingly-apathetic attitude of the officials at Audrie’s high school.
Last September, Audrie attended a house party with 10 other teenagers who were drinking. One of the boys — a “boy she’d known since middle school” — proceeded to allegedly rape Audrie. During the assault, photos were taken and distributed via social media and text. In the days that followed, she was bullied because of the photos.
The photos have went viral.
The boys marked Audrie’s undressed body as she slept with a permanent marker. On her leg, one boy wrote “Blank was here.” Arrows, circles and other scribbles covered her body, particularly around her genitalia, per a Santa Clara County sheriff’s report on the issue. One of the suspects told an investigator that he thought it was funny to “draw all over Audrie.”
Audrie was highly intoxicated on a concoction of alcohol mixed with Gatorade and did not know how she ended up in the bedroom, disrobed and vandalized. On Sept. 12, Audrie hung herself as an attempt to end the harassment.
A culture of silence
Despite Saratoga High School knowing about the allegations behind Audrie’s suicide, the school’s administrators did nothing. The boys involved were not punished or reprimanded. No attempts were made to counsel Audrie. No efforts were made to fact-check the situation with witnesses to the event. In all, the school gave the appearance that it was ignoring the situation.
Three members of the school’s football team were arrested and have been charged with sexually battering Audrie and dissemination of child pornography. The school — besides removing two of the boys from the football team — took no steps to punish the boys or segregate the alleged rapists from the rest of the student body. One boy transferred out of the district.
Wednesday, the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School took the extraordinary step toward defending its integrity by issuing a four-page defense of the allegations levied against it by the media and the community. According to the press release, “Recent media coverage of this tragic incident has put Saratoga High School into the public spotlight. However, this incident is now being resolved in the courts. We would ask that the public and the news media focus its attention on the judicial process so that we as a school family can once again focus our full attention on the teaching and learning process.”
In regard to why the district didn’t honor media requests about the case: “We have limited our public statements primarily for two reasons: (a) all indications show this was not a school-related incident; it was a private situation for the families involved and (b) the district is prohibited by law from disclosing or discussing details of student discipline cases.”
On how and when the district learn about the alleged assault: “After Audrie’s suicide, a small group of students voluntarily came to the school office to tell administrators … there was talk on campus about an alleged incident at a party involving Audrie and that some photographs were being shared among students … School and district leaders first learned of the allegations of sexual assault from law enforcement as that investigation was being launched. Since this was a preliminary investigation of a hearsay rumor and out of compassion for the family heading into the weekend memorial service, the Sheriff’s Office did not immediately notify Audrie’s mother that an investigation had been opened.”
Concerning why the students involved with the assault were not removed from the school campus immediately: “California’s Education Code 48900(s) limits the jurisdiction of a school district to impose discipline (suspension or expulsion) only for acts that are ‘related to school activity or attendance.’ While questionable or unlawful acts may occur at any time, the code lists four primary examples: while on school grounds, while going to or coming from school, during the lunch period whether on or off campus, and during or while going to or coming from a school sponsored activity.”
Regarding the district’s cyber-bullying policy: “Education Code 48900.2, 48900.3, 48900.4 and 48900 allow a school district to impose discipline for acts such as sexual harassment, hate violence, harassment, threats, or intimidation, and now cyberbullying. But such off campus acts still must have a provable connection to a school activity or attendance.”
California, despite the school’s policy, does indeed have a cyber-bullying law that allows schools to suspend students that taunt or attack their fellow students online. «There’s a culture of schools not getting involved because of a technical definition of things not happening on campus,» said Assemblywoman Nora Campos (D-San Jose), who — in 2011 — introduced the cyber-bullying bill. In addition, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) established that schools have the right to discipline based on “dangerous speak” and Morse v. Frederick (2007) established that schools can take preventative actions based on speech to protect and safeguard those in their charge.
Audrie was a highly popular student, beloved by both the faculty and the student body. Spanish teacher Gina Rodriguez said of her, “She was such a beautiful girl. I think of her every day when I look at her desk. I wish she could have seen so many of us in teal [the color] in her honor. She had no idea how loved she was in this community.”
History repeating
To many, this case echoes the Steubenville rape case, in which 17-year-old Trent Mays and 16-year-old Ma’lik Richmond — two football players from Steubenville (Ohio) High School — are accused of kidnapping a 16-year-old girl from Weirton, W.V., getting her intoxicated, and videotaping and photographing her sexual assault. The photos were shared over Instagram, the video via Facebook.
The case is also reminiscent of the case of 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons, who killed herself after her high school ignored evidence that she was raped. As a 15-year-old at Cole Harbour District High School in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, she was raped by four boys, who photographed the scene. The photos went viral after being distributed online. For the next 17 months, she struggled to deal with the fallout, going as far as to move to Halifax.
In a depression-based mood swing, she hung herself in her bathroom. The suicide attempt did not kill her, but did leave her brain-dead. Prior to this, she was receiving texts accusing her of being promiscuous. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Cole Harbour District High School have both came under extreme criticism of their lack of urgency in the handling of this case. No arrests were made, no charges were filed — despite the fact that the distribution of the photos constituted child pornography.
There is a real danger that there is an illogical and corrosive undertone in this culture to blame the victim in this type of crime. In all of these cases, there were a mob mentality that turned these callous acts of violence into unthinkable and wholly avoidable tragedies. After the Torrington rape case — in which Edgar Gonzalez and Joan Toribio, 18, allegedly raped a 13-year-old — the Twittersphere exploded with recriminations of the victim: @asmedick: “I wanna know why there’s no punishment for young hoes”; @AyooWilliam: “You destroyed two people’s life”; @ShelbyyKalinski: “Sticking up for a girl who wanted the D and then snitched? have a seat pleaseeee.”
In these situations, it is the place of the school — and society, as a whole — to offer more, not less, in the defense of the victim.