0 violence. what critics are saying and why some newtown parents say the episode -- this is "cnn newsroom." i'm fredricka whitfield in for suzanne malveaux. here are some of the top stories for you this hour. north carolina a & t state university has lifted a campus lockdown. there were reports of a man with a weapon. the university website says classes resume at 2:00 eastern time. and then onto galveston, texas. there was a shrimp boat on fire in the houston ship channel. the coast guard reports three people were rescued by a nearby boater. no word though on what caused that blaze. two tragedies in two separate countries sharing disturbingly similar details. in california and canada. two teenage girls hanged themselves after allegedly being raped. photographs of both alleged attacks were shared online. one big difference between the two cases, in california the boys accused of the crime have been charged. dan simon is following that story. he's joining us now from san francisco. dan, the suspects, tell us more. >> well, fred, first of all you know it's a story that seems to have a familiar narrative. here you have a large amount of alcohol consumed, there's a sexual assault, a photo is taken, it gets shared virally. and then in this case the tragedy here is the 15-year-old victim decides to take her own life. the victim is 15-year-old audrey pott. this occurred last september. it's now seven months later now in september and you have three 16-year-old boys who have been arrested and charged with two counts of felony sexual battery and one misdemeanor. now, fred, we don't know all the details here. but what we know is they were at a friend's house, drinking was involved, the girl passes out. there's some kind of sexual assault, a photo is taken and then it gets widely distributed among the friends. and after learning about this, audrey posts this on face book. she says, they took pictures of me, my life is ruined. this is the worst day ever. and eight days after this assault takes place she takes her own life. this is what audrey's family attorney had to say. take a look. >> what happened to audrey is tragic. it never should have happened. she had no idea what occurred until she woke up the following morning and had some drawing on her body in some private areas. >> well, authorities aren't naming the suspects because they are in fact juveniles. they will have a court appearance some time next week. now, the victim's family initially reluctant to speak about this is going to have a press conference next week as well. fred. >> and, dan, what are police saying about the lapse of time, the seven months? they investigated for all of this time and then it resulted in the arrest? or was there something else taking place in that amount of time? >> it's a very good question. and there is widespread criticism in that community because it took so long for arrests to take place. but what authorities are telling me is that they had to conduct several search warrants, they had to get computer records, phone records. and that takes a certain amount of time combined with the investigation that takes place. so they are defending their actions here but no doubt questions persist as to why it took seven months, fred. >> dan simon, thanks so much. on to the other case that is eerlly similar there. police investigating the death of 17-year-old ritea parsons. the boys who attacked thundershow their daughter released pictures and online bullying began and continued for a year and a half. police never filed charges in that case saying there is no evidence. but public outrage has been growing since parsons' suicide last week. this new government panel will be looking into the alleged crime and how the case was handled. skb this case and the one in california begging the question, is there more that parents can do to protect their kids? we'll look into this in the next half hour. the northeastern u.s. getting hit by a powerful line of storms today. in the south and midwest the storms were deadly. three people were killed in mississippi, missouri and nebraska. an ireporter captured this tornado right here as it ripped through a rural part of mississippi. dozens of homes were damaged across the southeast. and thousands of people are still without power. tom sater is in the cnn weather center. tom, who is getting hit now? is there a break? >> well, we don't have any severe thunderstorm watches or warnings, we don't have any tornado watches, which is good news. but we're in day three, the sound of chain saws can be heard from south dakota all the way down missouri, arkansas, alabama, mississippi and most likely we still have a few storms trying to pop up south of d.c. mainly most of the activity is from around tampa down to sarasota. if you have a flight in the corridor from philadelphia, newark, jfk, la guardia, could have an hour to even two-hour delays. we'll get up into the northeast where we have winter weather advisories in effect for parts of maine, vermont, new hampshire, massachusetts, northern areas of new york state where it's icing right now. and this, well, another storm system on the way where it is still snowing with the first one in the arrowhead of minnesota, u.p. of michigan. it's hard to believe that with the storm system here in april that 28 inches fell in rapid city, south dakota. that's more snow than they've had on any day in any month in any year. and here comes the next one. another foot? are you kidding me? we are behind in the tornado count so far, which is a good thing. but we could really see the season boom in the weeks ahead. here's the first one. let's get this out of here just in time for the weekend. there will still be some snow i think saturday morning in parts of maine, but it's going to be a drier air mass and a little chilly. that's it. but a lot of sunshine into sunday. so one system is gone, the next one comes down northern rockies. this is going to drag more cold air. we're about a month and a half behind really in our seasons right now. but more snowfall montana, north dakota. rain in advance of this. they're still without power. so the power crews working to restore power in south dakota's window is getting a little shorter here. let's talk about some good news. finally, this is an interesting note. in atlanta the pollen count as you know, fredricka, anything that's considered high is 90. >> yes. >> it was 8,024. >> what? >> off the charts. >> that explains the puffy eyes and coughing and all that. >> yeah. it looks good though for the weekend for the masters. litling rain around 12:30 and it's moved off. >> always so pretty. all the azaleas in bloom too. last night's episode of "glee" is causing quite the controversy. if you're a fan and haven't seen it, this segment contains spoilers. it was about a school shooting. and scenes like this upset some people from newtown, connecticut. >> let's get started. [ gunfire ] >> everyone spread out and hide. find a place to hide. go over there. >> nischelle turner joining us now from los angeles. nischelle, some newtown residents said simply this was just too soon. fox is the producer of "glee" reach out to them? how did this all evolve? >> apparently not, fred. which is why some people are upset about this. they did warn viewers at the top of the show and i should point out that the people at fox did try to publicize this episode ahead of time. they released screeners for tv critics to review. that's how some people in newtown learned about it ahead of time. the local paper there in newtown, connecticut credited a critic with tv line with giving the community a heads up and they ran a story ahead of the episode warning parents what was coming. but you know that wasn't enough for some of the newtown residents like parent of a student at the school who survived the shooting. he spoke with cnn this morning. here he is. >> we have no problem at least the parents i have spoken to that they aired an episode that had a school shooting. it's reality. it happened. it happened here. it happened at columbine. it happened in many other places. what's really upsetting is that no one, none of the producers reached out to the town of newtown to let us residents who are so close to this know that this episode was airing. >> you know, fred, it's a little bit of a tough line for producers and networks to walk here. on one hand you want tor very sensitive about the feelings of the family in newtown. but on the other hand there are unfortunately a lot of people out there who have suffered from gun violence. and you can't really alert everyone all of the time. >> all right. nischelle turner, thanks so much. all right, folks. let me know what you think about this. your comments at the end of the hour. all right. also here's what we're working on this hour with the tap of a finger and a click of a phone, a hacker takes over a plane. and, no, it's not a hollywood movie, there really is an app for that. does it work? then some liberals are mad at president obama. we'll tell you why they aren't standing by their man. and forget using cash, ditch the credit card, the bit coin seems to be the future of currency, or is it? we'll explain what it is, how it works. this is "cnn newsroom." ness? by the armful? by the barrelful? the carful? how about...by the bowlful? campbell's soups give you nutrition, energy, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. 8% every 10 years.age 40, we can start losing muscle -- wow. wow. but you can help fight muscle loss with exercise and ensure muscle health. i've got revigor. what's revigor? it's the amino acid metabolite, hmb to help rebuild muscle and strength naturally lost over time. 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