A police officer stood outside, demanding her daughter’s phone. A day earlier, Pott had spoken at the funeral for her 15-year-old daughter, Audrie, who had commited suicide that week. Pott knew little about what caused the teen to take her own life, beyond a strange stream of apologetic Facebook messages from friends chiming from Audrie’s open laptop. But without a proper warrant, Pott refused to hand over the phone.
That unsettling visit was the first in what would become a yearlong investigation into what happened at a 2012 Labor Day weekend party in the Silicon Valley suburb of Saratoga, California. Three 16-year-old boys sexually assaulted Audrie at the party, according to news accounts and the website of a foundation established in her name. They also took photos of the attack and shared them with classmates.
“I don’t think she thought she could start over,” Pott said during a recent visit with family in Phoenix, nearly seven years after Audrie’s death.
Her mother worries that little has been done for parents and victims of cyberbullying, as more and more teens gain access to smartphones. She and bullying experts believe increased accessibility to Wi-Fi, smartphones with high quality cameras and social media platforms are transforming how teens torment each other.
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