Los Gatos High student graduates holding sign: 'Rapists don't belong @ graduation'
A student at a California high school graduated Friday carrying a sign with a strong message: "Rapists don't belong @ graduation."
Wearing a black robe and cap, Sofia Rossi, 18, protested Los Gatos High School's alleged decision to let those accused of sexual assault attend the graduation ceremony.
"I wanted to show the survivors of sexual violence in the audience that the school allowing perpetrators to walk at graduation was not acceptable," Rossi wrote in an email to SFGATE. "We had to hear administrators read the names of student assailants and listen as hundreds of people applauded them. I couldn’t let the survivors watching think that’s what they deserved, to watch their abuser be celebrated as they walked across the stage."
Rossi is one of the founders of an organization called From Survivors, For Survivors, and last year, the group called on the district and the school to ban "student rapists" from high school events and activities, launching a Change.org petition that received more than 6,900 signatures. About 2,150 students attend the school.
"During the summer of last year, we wrote out a list of action items for our school to address sexual violence and one of our demands explained that attending prom and walking at graduation are privileges—privileges that rapists should not have," Rossi wrote. "Clearly, the school didn’t listen to us because well-known perpetrators walked at the ceremony just like everybody else."
Los Gatos High School is a public school in a scenic community nestled against the Santa Cruz Mountains at the southernmost tip of Silicon Valley. The school is known for its stellar academics and competitive sports, and it has also recently gotten attention for an increasing number of students speaking out about sexual assault. Last year, an outpouring of students shared their stories of sexual assault on Instagram; the page called MeToo.LosGatos has nearly 250 posts.
Last month, Mia Lozoya shared her experience of being sexually assaulted by a Los Gatos High School student with NBC News. Lozoya, who didn't provide comment for this story, told NBC that the incident occurred in February 2020 when she had drinks with an upperclassman. (SFGATE does not typically identify those who have been sexually assaulted unless they have chosen to come forward publicly.) NBC reported that Lozoya and her family filed a police report; SFGATE reached out to the Los Gatos/Monte Sereno Police Department but didn't hear back before publishing this story.
An investigation concluded the school, school district and accused student were not at fault for any Title IX violation; the prosecution cited not enough evidence to charge the accused student, according to NBC.
Sasha Ryu is also a co-founder of From Survivors, For Survivors and said the boy who allegedly sexually assaulted Lozoya attended graduation along with other boys who are known at the school for assaulting girls.
"There was this one guy, I would say most of the community knows about," Ryu said. "It’s more of a thing where girls will say quietly, 'Stay away from him, don’t be alone with him, don’t take a drink from him.' All the teachers know. And when he walked across the stage, he got one of the biggest round of applause from the crowd, I was just sitting there and knowing these people I grew up with knew what he had done, and they were clapping."
Ryu and Rossi said the current Los Gatos High School Principal Paul Robinson was the principal at Saratoga High School during the 2012 Audrie Pott case.
As a 15-year-old student at Saratoga High, Pott died by suicide eight days after being sexually assaulted by three 16-year-old boys. Nude photos were posted of her online. The boys admitted to their crime in juvenile court and two of the three received 30-day sentences that were served on weekends. The third was sentenced to 45 consecutive days.
Rossi said two of the boys attended Saratoga High School and alleged Robinson didn't ban the assailants from graduation.
"The boys did not end up walking by their own choice when they learned that a film crew working on a documentary about Audrie's assault would be covering the event," Rossi added in an email, referencing the documentary "Audrie & Daisy." "When I learned that LGHS had hired Paul Robinson amid a community-wide reckoning with sexual violence after the scandal that ensued at SHS, I knew I couldn't stand by and watch him take the same inaction at LGHS."
If you are in distress, call the National Suicide Prevention hotline 24 hours a day at 800-273-8255, or visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org for more resources.
SFGATE reached out to both Los Gatos High School Principal Paul Robinson and Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District Superintendent Mike Grove for this story and didn't receive a response.