Sexual Assault on Oxy Student (Update)

Campus Safety officials are “exploring options” with the LAPD Northeast Community Police Station in an attempt to address the sexual assault early this month on an Oxy student.

“We’re in a holding pattern,” said Campus Safety Director Holly Nieto, referring to the fact that the student, who was assaulted by a man on the night of Friday, September 2, on Yosemite Drive, has chosen not to register a complaint with either the Campus Safety department or the LAPD.

Nieto said she could not say what kind of sexual assault the student had suffered on the stretch of Yosemite Drive that lies roughly between Rosemary Drive and Eagle Rock Boulevard. (See map.)

“I believe she was coming from a social gathering,” Nieto said, adding that she could not say precisely where on Yosemite Drive the gathering took place.

Although sexual assaults on the college campus are “infrequent,” according to Nieto, “it’s alarming anytime a member of the community is the victim of any crime,” she said. (In the three years from 2007 through 2009, according to crime statistics posted on the college website, there have been 20 incidents of robbery in public property adjacent to Oxy, and nine cases of aggravated assault. There were no incidents of rape.)

“We encourage our students on and off campus to always be aware of their surroundings, to walk in groups of three or more, to take advantage of our safety escort program within our escort zone, which is about three blocks of our campus,” Nieto said.

Check back for updates on this crime story.