Audrie Pott Rape: 3 Teens Arrested in Sexual Assault Case

In September, while she was unconscious at a classmate’s house party, 15-year-old Audrie Pott from San Francisco, Calif., was raped and sexually abused. Her attackers then used their cell phones to spread pictures of the assault across the school. Feeling hopeless and ashamed, the young girl took her life eight days later. On Thursday, about seven months after the incident, the boys who allegedly did this to her have been arrested.

Since they are minors, the names of the three boys who attacked Pott have not been released. Two of them go to Pott’s school, Saratoga High while one goes to a nearby school, Christopher High School. Although all of them are 16-years-old, the victim’s family wants the boys to be prosecuted as adults because of the unthinkable nature of their crime. The attorney for the Potts family commented on the case, saying, “What these boys did is beyond unconscionable. They should be held to the highest standard of the law to make sure this never ever happens again." The trio faces charges of sexual battery and potential charges of dissemination of child pornography because they video went viral. The boys are being held in Juvenile Hall until their detention hearing next week.

The day after the attack and eight days before she took her own life, Audrie posted on her Facebook page “The whole school knows … My life is ruined." Audrie’s parents didn’t even learn about their daughter’s assault until after she hanged herself. But, the saddest part about what happened to Audrie Pott is that this kind of assault and subsequent suicide is becoming eerily common. Rehtaeh Parsons, a 17-year-old Canadian girl was also raped while unconscious at a party and suffered bullying after it was spread across the school over the Internet earlier this month. She too took her own life. There was also the case in Steubenville, Ohio, where two high school football players videotaped themselves assaulting a nearly passed out 16-year-old girl. This trend that has appeared in high schools of taking advantage of passed out girls is sick and terrifying and something needs to be done to save these teens.

After her death, Pott’s family started the Audrie Pott foundation, an organization that provides scholarships to students in the San Francisco area studying music and art, two of Audrie’s favorite subjects. The family is also trying to get a law passed in her name to stop cyberbullying.