Audrie Pott tragedy: Where do we go from here?

A sense of shock settled like thick fog on the morning of Friday, April 12, after students found out about the alleged causes of sophomore Audrie Pott’s suicide last September. Throughout the hallways, students murmured about the presence of news vans outside the school — intruders into the community they had once assumed to be a safe haven.

Three sophomore boys had been arrested for the unspeakable: allegedly sexually assaulting an unconscious girl and spreading illicit photos of her. Claiming wrongful death, the Pott family sued those involved at the alcohol-laden party where the incident is said to have occurred last fall, and filed an action against the school district. They allege that Audrie took her life due to cyberbullying — the spreading of illicit photos of her — and are pushing for “Audrie’s Law,” legislation to strengthen penalties for cyberbullying.

Then, the next day after initial news reports broke, it was Spring Break, and students left a school that had been irrevocably changed. When they came back, the shock only slightly dulled by time, nagging questions remained: What went wrong? Who was to blame? Where does the school go from here?

Junior class president Anup Kar thinks that the school needs to place an increased focus on kindness.

“Where do we go from here … we keep going,” Kar said. “We stay resilient, and we do what we should have done from the start. We should be kind to everyone regardless of who they are or whether you like them or not. We are a community. And we have to act like it.”

For days, the national media examined Saratoga — “The New Steubenville” — as inevitable comparisons to the rape case in Ohio were made, and criticism was directed at everyone from principal Paul Robinson for the administration’s apparent lack of action to the football team on which the boys had once played. 

“It is sad because students are once again ashamed to come to our school every day or ashamed to wear the Saratoga High School logo on their chests,” Kar said. “What once was becoming a safe place for students to come onto campus has turned into a place of shame, and I think that isn’t fair.”

On campus, shock also turned into anger toward the boys accused of sexual assault, who are currently under house arrest. The three remain in the juvenile justice system and their actions remain allegations. They have yet to be formally tried. 

Junior Wilson Kung, a member of the football team and a former teammate of the accused boys, expressed anger toward the three, one of whom now goes to school at Christopher High School in Gilroy.

“I didn’t have one shred of sympathy for them,” Kung said on April 12, the Friday when news reports initially broke. “What they did honestly disgusted me, and if it wasn’t for what [football coach Tim] Lugo told the players [discouraging vigilantism against the boys], I would have taken action myself … They knew what they were getting into. What kind of humor would you need to find this funny and spread [the pictures] around?”

Kung was shocked at the boys’ presence at school during the seven-month interlude between the alleged assault and the arrests.

“I can’t believe people let them walk around campus for months like nothing had happened,” he said. “I was happy because I thought [the arrests were] justice, but the way people talked … There is so much apathy at this school — people initially found the pictures funny, can you believe that?”

Kung said that, for him, the worst part was the way some students on campus talked about the events. 

“Do you know what got me the most at school today?” Kung asked. “People who didn’t know anyone involved and didn’t know about what happened, talking about it in a trivializing way. People who fake sympathy because it’s the socially acceptable thing to do.”

Kung was disgusted by what the superficiality he saw in some of his classmates. 

“… People more worried, even excited that we were on national news, the same people who realistically wouldn’t have stopped worrying about their grades for two seconds to care about Audrie if she hadn’t taken her own life,” he said. “That was the worst for me today — apathy disguised as care.”

Many students were shocked to find out that one of their classmates had to go through such suffering. 

“I think it’s horrifying to think that this kind of tragedy and crime happens so close to home,” ASB president Sasan Sadaat said. “I still am shocked about the amount of torture Audrie must have had to endure to drive her to such extreme measures.”

Junior class officer Manini Desai said she’s already started to notice changes around the campus. 

“Students have been a little kinder, maybe not even intentionally, but subconsciously we’re all trying to be a little more aware of how our friends are doing,” Desai said. “I’ve also noticed people don’t joke about killing themselves as much. And if someone makes the joke, everybody’s a little silent.”

Desai thinks that Saratoga’s heavy academics may sometimes preclude discussion of the school’s social issues.

“Our school may have had a bit of an ego,” she said. “Through this experience, I think we realized for all the achievements and accolades our school gets, our school is very human. We have the same problems other schools have.”

 

A town hidden from the outside

With its lack of streetlights and the abundance of trees protected by city law, Saratoga is a town where, for a long time, it seemed like nothing ever happened. Students here are known to have an obsession with stellar SAT scores and GPAs, and the crafty deal in test questions rather than coke. Elections, some say, are won by whether or not one is in band. 

It’s not a place where violence is common, and for many Saratoga students, the Pott tragedy has been a wake-up call to harsher realities.

“Here is the reality of the matter,” Kar said. “No one expects a shooter to come on campus until they do. No one expects an earthquake to happen until it does. The mindset for everyone has always been, ‘Oh that would never happen to us’ until it does. With Audrie’s suicide that reality set in.”

The tragedy has not only shocked the community, but has brought into question the school’s very culture.

Senior Elyse Berlinberg thinks that the tragedy highlights Saratoga’s issues with bullying. 

“Bullying is not an isolated incident. And it’s clear that in this area it’s becoming an increasing issue,” she said. “Gunn, Los Gatos, and now Saratoga High School can all testify to that fact.”

In the days of the media blitz, a reaction of many members of the Saratoga community was to go on the defense, saying that the alleged transgressions of the arrested three weren’t indicative of the whole community.

“I understand how people would naturally avoid the situation because this incident isn’t a reflection of the atmosphere of Saratoga or our school,” senior Nessa Kim said. “But I also believe there are good reasons to learn from it and to discuss what happened rather than totally hiding it under the rug … being silent was one of the greatest problems.”

For senior Kevin Chen, the difficulty is that programs or events — such as Just Be Kind week — tend to be temporary, though he said that JBK was a positive movement. Even now, he said, people are beginning to forget about the tragedy. 

“Change has to start with the individuals, and that’s why it’s so hard, after all,” Chen said. “We need to start deeply questioning ourselves and really find the roots of these tragedies.“

Chen said that the key was a heightened awareness. 

“This thing was led by three guys who made some terrible decisions,” he said. “The way I see it, [the arrested boys] just weren’t thinking … and they caused a tragedy. If we’re going to solve this problem, we all need to take a bigger step back and think more.”

In the end, Berlinberg said, initiatives to solve these deep, complex issues must come from the bottom up.

“If we’re sat in a room and told why we should treat each other kindly, we’re just being talked at,” she said. “If the students do not want to listen, then any attempt to reconcile the issue or progress is null … [It’s] up to the members of Saratoga High. My class is leaving — the lasting effects are in the hands of the underclassmen and juniors.”