SAN FRANCISCO, April 17 (UPI) -- The family of a California girl who committed suicide after she was allegedly sexually assaulted said school officials were "negligent in addressing" bullying.
Robert Allard, an attorney for the family of Audrie Pott, said in a claim filed Tuesday that Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District administrators "were negligent in addressing the bullying Audrie Pott encountered" at Saratoga High School, southeast of San Jose, Calif.
Allard said school officials had concluded "despite compelling evidence to the contrary" that bullying played no role in the 15-year-old's suicide in September 2012, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
Pot was a sophomore when she attended a Labor Day party at the home of a friend whose parents were away. She passed out after consuming a mixture of alcohol and Gatorade and when she woke up, her clothes were partially removed and someone had written on her body with a marker that "[a 16-year-old classmate] was here."
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Investigators suspect three 16-year-olds who had been friends with Audrie since middle school of taking a cellphone picture of her while she was passed out and then showing it to others in the week before she killed herself, the Times said.
The three were arrested last week and appeared in juvenile court in San Jose Tuesday on charges of misdemeanor sexual battery, felony distribution of child pornography and felony forcible sexual penetration.
The Pott family has filed a wrongful death suit against the three juveniles and the owners of the home where their daughter was allegedly assaulted. The claim filed Tuesday will allow the family to pursue legal action against the district at some future point, the newspaper said.
District officials could not be reached for comment, the Times said.
