Rape Case Baffles Campus Officials

This story, which ran in Saturday’s California section, is being republished today because several paragraphs were erroneously omitted from some editions of The Times.

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Carson High School officials were unable to explain Friday how three popular students apparently eluded supervision during a school-sponsored visit to UCLA last week and allegedly sexually assaulted a UCLA student in her dorm room.

Carson High Principal Douglas Waybright said school officials were investigating the incident, which is alleged to have occurred Dec. 5 during a daytime tour of the Westwood campus. Only one teacher was assigned to supervise 56 students during the excursion, according to Los Angeles Unified School District officials.

UCLA police arrested the three students the next day, using descriptions provided by the victim and other witnesses. But details of the alleged incident became public only this week.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said Friday that it had asked the Inglewood Juvenile Court to order that the suspects be tried as adults.

The two 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old had not been identified, pending their certification as adults. They were in juvenile custody, charged with one count each of forcible rape in concert, forcible rape and oral copulation, authorities said.

One of the 17-year-olds also faces an additional count of sexual battery for allegedly groping a second woman in a campus dorm the same day.

“This crime was horrendous,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Alex Karkanen, who is handling the case, said Friday. “Our primary goal is to ensure a successful prosecution.”

At UCLA and Carson High on Friday, officials privately said that planning for the visit might have been too hasty and that more Carson High staff members should have accompanied the students.

Susan Cox, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Unified School District, to which Carson belongs, said that, according to the district’s police report, the students arrived at the campus about 9:30 a.m. for a welcoming presentation. They were split into groups and were told to meet at a certain spot on campus by 1:30 p.m. Cox said she did not know whether any adult accompanied any group of students.

A Carson High teacher who spoke on condition of anonymity said the students had been allowed to explore the campus for several hours on their own.

“My understanding is, they were given some free time,” the teacher said. “We’ve taken many trips to UCLA. Students are told not to go certain places, and if they’re told they’re representing Carson High School, you expect them to listen.”

The teacher who led the field trip, Cox said, “had no indication that anything was wrong.” It was only the next day, when UCLA police went to the Carson campus, that high school officials learned of the alleged assault.

UCLA policy requires that high school students on campus tours be accompanied by one teacher or counselor for every 25 students, officials said. But Carson High had informed the university too late to arrange for a formal tour; the students were there on an informal basis.

Waybright, who has been principal of the 3,500-student high school for four years, said he could not discuss most specifics of the UCLA visit, but said the students had been supervised by the high school staff. He would not say how many supervisors there were.

“This is a very unfortunate incident,” he said. “We’re all very disappointed and hurt by just the notion of it, because we have a great school here.”

Students interviewed at the campus Friday identified those arrested as two seniors and a junior and said at least one was a member of the football team. Cox, the district spokeswoman, said two of the boys live together. The three are good friends, described as popular and funny.

At UCLA, police spokeswoman Nancy Greenstein said that the young woman, accompanied by friends, went to the campus police station late in the afternoon of Dec. 5 and reported that she had been raped. She and others who had seen the young men on campus and near the Fir residence hall provided detailed descriptions.

Greenstein and other UCLA officials said that, while other sexual attacks have occurred on the campus over the years, including an assault in a restroom in January 2001, only one, in 1987, involved an attack by a stranger in a residence hall.

“It’s very uncommon for us to have an assault like this on campus

UCLA officials said the young men are believed to have entered the residence hall, a four-story structure housing about 200 students, by “tailgating” students who had opened the door to the building with electronic key cards.

“They apparently walked in behind the students,” said Mark Foraker, UCLA’s housing director.

“These three individuals would appear to be of a similar age, so they would not have stood out necessarily from the students who live here.”

Foraker said campus security and housing officials are reviewing their security and campus visitation policies to make sure students are protected. He said the review would be completed in several weeks.

In addition, he said, UCLA police have stepped up patrols around the residence halls, most of which are in the northwest part of the sprawling campus.

And at the De Neve Plaza dormitory complex, which includes the Fir residence hall, students heading home for holiday break Friday expressed a range of emotions about the alleged assault, from resignation to fear to anger.

Several students said crime could happen anywhere. Others said the alleged attack was a reminder that they should not walk alone from the library to their dorms in the middle of the night or prop open their room doors when they do laundry.

And one second-year student voiced irritation that campus security officers had not provided more details, letting rumors get out of hand.

“They’re not telling anyone what happened,” said Monica Gray, a second-year student, “But people have a right to know.”

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Times staff writer Kristina Sauerwein contributed to this report.