After a night of heavy drinking with some of her classmates, 15-year-old Saratoga, CA high school student Audrie Pott awoke to find messages scribbled on her body that indicated she had been sexually assaulted. Soon the rest of her school would know as well.

In the days following the incident, three boys now in custody spread embarassing photos of Audrie Pott around the school causing her endless torment and humiliation. Eight days after the assault, Pott took her own life to escape the pain. And yet, her school disctrict does not believe it did anything wrong by not expelling the boys.

"Whether the sexual assault occurred on or off campus, it is clear from the accounts of various students that the dissemination of at least one photograph occurred on school grounds for the specific purpose to harass and intimidate Audrie while she was attending school related activities," the Pott family's attorney Robert Allard said.

The Saratoga School District claims that it did nothing wrong by not punishing the three 16-year-old boys now accused of sexual assault and distribution of child pornography. The school district believes that because the assault did not happen on school grounds, it did not have the right to intervene.

"There is absolutely no doubt to the reason Audrie took her life and the three people who are arrested are responsible for her death," said her stepmother Lisa Pott at a news conference Wednesday.

Pott's family contends that bullying played a large part in her decision to take her life, and that the sexual assault and subsequent spread of a naked picture of her was the final straw. Allard has noted that Pott sought help from the school for bullying as early as the spring of 2012, but nothing was done to help her. The school district disagrees.

"Since her death, we have thoroughly examined our counseling records and interviewed our staff to see if there were any warning signs or indications that Audrie was being bullied or harassed at school," the school district said. "That internal investigation showed that she never reported or sought counseling for bullying before or after the alleged sexual assault. If she had, our staff would have reported it and taken preventative steps to stop it."
The Pott case closely mirrors a similar incident in Steubenville, OH that went to court this year. In the Steubenville case, two boys were convicted of sexually assaulting one of their classmates at a party and disseminating demeaning information about the assault online. Both boys are now in jail on felony charges.