Teen's Suicide After Assault, Cyberbullying Sparks Questions

A 15-year-old Saratoga High School student, Audrie Pott, hanged herself, according to authorities, after male classmates sexually assaulted her and then posted images online.

Are local schools and communities doing enough to prevent similar tragedies from happening?

Statewide, 10 percent of ninth-grade girls report that they have been sexually harassed or bullied. In Sonoma and Napa counties, the rate ranges from 8.7 in the Napa Valley Unified and Petaluma City school districts to 11 percent in the Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District. 

"There are two common elements here that are being repeated across the country – sexual assault by an adolescent and the cyberbullying that follows," Robert Allard, an attorney for Audrie's family, told the San Jose Mercury News.

Three 16-year-old boys were arrested Thursday, seven months after the September attack. Allard said at least three boys took part in multiple sexual acts on Audrie while she lay drunk and unconscious at the home of a friend whose parents where gone for the weekend, according to a story on Saratoga Patch.

Full coverage of the Audrie Pott case on Saratoga Patch

At least one photo was taken of Audrie during the assault, and it was distributed by text and email then posted on Facebook, Allard said. On her own Facebook page, Audrie wrote: "They took pictures of me. My life is ruined" and that it was "the worst day ever."

She committed suicide eight days later.

Danielle Citron, a University of Maryland Frances King Carey School of Law professor and expert in sexual cyberstalking said this type of cyberbullying is getting worse:

"... as it becomes easier to post or text or comment on a photo, sexual cyber-bulling and cyber-stalking is becoming 'more pervasive, more common, and more acceptable.'" 

The arrests in the Audrie Potts tragedy came just days after Rehtaeh Parsons, a Canadian teen, hanged herself, after she was allegedly raped, then cyberbullied.

We asked our Patch Facebook readers whether they had discussed online bullying with their children. Several offered practical tips based on personal experience.

"Tell children to never share passwords to their Facebook," said Julie Truthlover on Healdsburg Patch Facebook. "My child had a horrible experience with a friend she had a falling out with logging on and writing to people nasty things pretending to be her and it caused a TON of problems at school."

The community should offer a place outside of school for students to gather and receive support for bullying, said one reader.

"Young kids need a safe place immediately when they have been targeted."

Experts say that putting everything online is part of the teen culture, making bullying a constant in their lives.

A statewide survey shows how often youth report being bullied or harrassed based on their gender. Here's a snapshot of that data for ninth-grade girls. The data also is available for seventh- and 11th-graders, boys and for bullying and harassment based on race, religion, disability or sexual orientation.

Gender as Reason for Bullying/Harassment, by Gender and Grade Level: 2008-2010

Data Source: As cited on kidsdata.org, California Department of Education, California Healthy Kids Survey (WestEd). http://www.wested.org/chks

Grade Level: 9th GradePercent Female 0 Times1 Time2-3 Times4 or More Times California 90.1% 5.0% 2.6% 2.3% Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified 89.0% 5.5% 2.8% 2.8% Healdsburg Unified 91.2% 4.4% 4.4% 0.0% Napa Valley Unified 91.3% 3.7% 2.4% 2.6% Petaluma City Schools 90.3% 5.0% 2.8% 1.9% Sonoma Valley Unified 92.1% 4.7% 0.0% 3.1%

 

RELATED LINKS

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Adolescent Violence Prevention Knowledge Path, Maternal and Child Health Library at Georgetown University

Audrie Pott Foundation

Bullying, California Department of Education

California Safe Schools Coalition

Cyberbullying Research Center

Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN)

Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports: Effective Schoolwide Interventions, U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs

School Connectedness, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

School Safety and Mentoring Guides, Hamilton Fish Institute, George Washington University

StopBullying.gov

Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere (STRYVE), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Consortium to Prevent School Violence

WestEd: Healthy Kids, Schools, and Communities