Sexual Assault Roils Stanford

STANFORD, CA — The Stanford community is on edge after university officials reported that a rape occurred on campus last week.

The victim was working in a campus office at around 12:30 p.m. Friday when a man grabbed her and dragged her into a basement and raped her, Stanford’s Department of Public Safety said in a crime alert.

The rape is the second such incident in recent months. It follows a similar case in August in which a woman was forced into a bathroom and raped.

Both incidents occurred in daylight hours.

"There's not really a safe place," Stanford student Nadia Ertz told ABC 7.

"And no amount of, you know, training or intelligence can really stop that in its entirety."

University officials said they've beefed up on-campus security and are looking at improving lighting and expanding surveillance cameras, the report said.

“I don’t know if hardening the campus security is necessarily the right move, just because I think we know that increasing security and police presence will just disproportionately affect students of color and other marginalized students," Stanford student Lily Foreman told the television station.

“I never felt unsafe here last year, but I’ve definitely been more careful walking around at night. I think it’s just really sad and unfortunate.”

The most recent incident was not reported to authorities by the victim, but by a “mandated reporter,” which is a person legally obligated to notify law enforcement of such crimes.

“Under a federal law known as the Clery Act, DPS then sends an alert to the community, officially known as a Timely Warning, when a judgment is made based on the information available that the report could involve a continuing threat to the community,” university officials said.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact the Department of Public Safety at (650) 723-9633.