By Khalida Sarwari
Sept. 10 marked a somber anniversary for the Pott family; it was the day their daughter, Audrie Pott, took her own life. A year has passed and another school year has begun. Audrie would have been 16 and in her third year of high school.
To cope with their grief, the Pott family has found ways to honor Audrie’s memory. Shortly after her death, Audrie’s father, mother and stepmother announced the formation of the Audrie Pott Foundation, which will offer scholarships to students in the Bay Area to pursue art and music and also provide youth counseling and support as well as suicide and sexual assault awareness.
“There’s been so much, in our minds, bad news,” Audrie’s father, Larry Pott, said. “What we wanted to do is just say, ‘There is some good news.’ We’re trying to help the community and put the funds that are donated to good use and just let people know that there is some good out there; it’s not all about crime and punishment.”
Nearly a year later, the organization generated a grant the family provided to CASSY, a Silicon Valley nonprofit agency that partners with schools to provide comprehensive mental health support for students. With matching funds from two other organizations, the grant presented to CASSY amounted to $15,000.
The funds will allow CASSY to continue providing services at local schools, including individual, group and family counseling, classroom presentations on depression, suicide awareness and bullying prevention, consultation and training for school staff, and outreach to parents and the broader community. The agency has had a presence at Los Gatos High School since the 2009-10 school year, after the school experienced three student deaths in the previous school year. One of the more high-profile deaths was that of freshman Jill Naber, whose suicide occurred in March 2009 after an embarrassing photo of her was posted on the Internet.
Since Audrie’s death, CASSY is now also available at Saratoga High, Larry Pott said.
“When we first started the foundation, we thought if we could have counselors in a school or in a center that kids could come to freely, without it being like a Big Brother thing; what a great thing that would be,” Pott said. “CASSY has basically done that.”
The foundation also recently announced the Audrie Pott Music Scholarship, which will offer scholarships to students for one year through Musicians Mobile, a company that provides professional in-home music lessons.
Audrie’s stepmother, Lisa Pott, recalls that Audrie loved music. The teen played the viola and the piano and loved to sing, Lisa Pott said. She marched in President Barack Obama’s 2008 inaugural day parade as a member of the only middle school color guard to participate in the event.
“Audrie was always extremely artistic and loved pottery, ceramics, writing and music, so we wanted to do something that would channel her passions and help kids in that regard,” Larry Pott said.
Even Audrie’s three younger siblings have chipped in. In July, they set up a lemonade stand at the Foodie Fun on the Run event, raising more than $600 for the foundation. That event, one in a series aimed at raising money for a designated charity, brought in more than $500 for the foundation, with a second event scheduled for Oct. 6.
The foundation’s next fundraiser will likely be a silent auction or dinner and will be in early spring, Larry Pott said.
There has been positive news on another front, too: a pair of Senate bills that have gained traction as a result of the family’s advocacy. Senate Bill 255, which was recently signed into law, makes it a misdemeanor to publish images of another person, without their consent, “with the intent to cause serious emotional distress.” The bill, which takes effect immediately, comes with a punishment of up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. “Audrie’s story specifically inspired this bill,” Lisa Pott said.
The second, Assembly Bill 256, is a cyber bullying law that is currently awaiting Gov. Jerry Brown’s approval. If passed, the bill would amend the education code to give school administrators the authority to expel students who have participated in cyber bullying. “If that bill is passed, it means that if somebody is assaulted or bullied, even if it’s off campus after school hours, [the school] has the ability to expel those students,” Lisa said.
Referring to Audrie’s case, Lisa continued, “When something like that happens and they’ve been harassed, they shouldn’t have to sit in a classroom with those people for a week.”
It was important, said Larry Potts, that Audrie’s death serve as a catalyst for positive change, as difficult as it has been for the family to relive the tragedy.
“We’re in this epidemic of crimes and cyber bullying, and really nothing has changed legally,” he said. “We can bury our head in the sand or let Audrie’s name be an impetus for change. We had to decide early on: would Audrie be Jane Doe or Audrie Pott?”
In April, the family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Audrie’s three 16-year-old alleged attackers, their parents, a girl who is alleged to have assisted the boys before and after the assault, and Michael and Sheila Penuen, the owners of the home where Audrie was assaulted took place. The Potts recently settled with the Penuens, but the settlement is pending review by a judge, according to Pott family attorney Robert Allard.
Apart from that, the pre-trial phase has begun. “We expect a trial by the end of 2014,” Allard said.
The boys, whose names have not been released because they are minors, were arrested on April 11. The Pott family filed a wrongful death lawsuit four days later, claiming the boys sexually assaulted an intoxicated and unconscious Audrie at a Labor Day weekend party while they were sober and then texted at least one photo of the attack to other students in the school. The boys, schoolmates that Audrie had considered her friends, are accused of using a marker to draw on and write sexually explicit messages on her body. After a stint in juvenile hall, the boys were placed on house arrest as they face charges of sexual battery and distribution of child pornography in connection with the case.
An article in the Sept. 26 issue of Rolling Stone magazine revealed new details of the party and the aftermath that led to Audrie’s suicide. In Facebook transcripts cited in the article, Audrie wrote to a friend named “Joe” that the “whole school knows…Do you know how people view me now? And I now have a reputation I can never get rid of.” In a message to another boy, Audrie said, “My life is over…I ruined my life and I don’t even remember how.” Days later, she took her life in the bathroom of her mother’s Los Altos home.
On Oct. 15, the school resource officer unit of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office is hosting a meeting to share tips with parents on keeping their child safe while using the Internet. Parents will receive tips on monitoring social media websites, their child’s cell phone usage, and preventing cyber bullying and sexting. The meeting is at Quinlan Community Center’s Cupertino Room, 10185 N. Stelling Road, in Cupertino. It will run from 6 to 8:30 p.m.
The class is open to any parent with a child attending a school in Saratoga or Cupertino. It is strongly encouraged that children not attend as adult themes will be discussed.
For information about the Audrie Pott Foundation, visit audriepottfoundation.com or the organization’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/AudriePottFoundation. Tax-deductible donations to the Audrie Pott Foundation can be made online or by mailing a check to the Audrie Pott Foundation, P.O. Box 2831, Saratoga CA 95070-9998.
Audrie Pott is no Jane Doe, and family plans to honor her memory
