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Cosumnes River College Officials Respond To Safety Concerns Following Assaults

By Kelly Ryan

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - An attack on a local campus is raising concerns about safety after police say a woman was pulled into a bathroom and sexually assaulted.

It happened at Cosumnes River College, and it's not the first assault.

"I have classes at night here and I walk to my car by myself, so that's pretty scary," said student Gloria Gutierrez.

Gutierrez recently heard from her friends about a spike in crime at Cosumnes River College. There have been four serious incidents in the past two weeks.

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"I just can't believe people are actually using guns," said Gloria.

"The last couple of weeks have been a little bit more intense," said Los Rios Police Department Chief Cheryl Sears.

Sears said her department has received one report of sexual battery in the campus parking garage and two reports of suspects pulling out handguns and threatening women in parking lots then taking off.

Police believe the two incidents are not related. The most recent incident occurred last Monday in the business science building on campus.

"A female reported that she had been pulled into the men's restrooms and sexually assaulted," said Sears.

"It was actually at 4:30, so it was in broad daylight, which makes it even more concerning," said Cole McCarthy, a student.

McCarthy made it a point to attend a safety forum Friday for students and faculty. Many in the audience told officials they learned of the crimes through friends, not from crime bulletins sent from school officials.

"I was surprised that the bulletins were going out to students by Gmail, but students weren't getting it," said Harriette Carr, a Cosumnes River College professor.

The college sends those bulletins through the campus email system, but there's a hitch: Students won't get alerts directly to their phones unless they request it.

"If they don't want to use that particular account, they can manually go in there and forward it to their own email account. Whether or not they do that is hard for us to control," said Kristie West, a Los Rios Community College District spokesperson.

College officials admit some students and faculty did not receive the crime bulletins. They say they should have, and are working to fix any problems.

Officials also say they will be looking at adding additional police officers on campus.

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