Police arrested a Florida Atlantic University student using his phone to take pictures of women in the restroom.
But the university didn't alert students.
In a short statement provided one day after NewsChannel 5 reported the arrest, a spokeswoman said Alexis Garcia, the student arrested for taking the sneaking inappropriate videos,didn't pose an "imminent threat" so the university didn't notify students.
“I had no idea actually until you just told me,” said freshman Danica Dudley.
She is one of several students who hadn’t heard what happened on Nov. 23.
FAU police arrested Garcia. Records show he was in the Engineering East academic building at 2 p.m. hiding in the women's bathroom so he could videotape women from under the stall.
“It’s kind of discomforting, unsettling,” said freshman Amanda Arseneau.
FAU student body President Michael Cairo agrees with the school's reasoning on not sending an alert.
“What you don't want to happen with an alert system for emergency situations is alert fatigue,” he said, point out students may grow to ignore important alerts if the schools overloads them.
He added the police department publishes arrests and incidents on its website every day, so students can monitor it if they choose.
As the school's statement pointed out, Garcia was not an imminent threat since he was in police custody.
But other students say a notification would've been worthwhile.
“If they would have just given us a courtesy of telling us there was an issue, some of us probably would've taken precautions to make sure that doesn't happen again,” said Kaitlin Rogers, a junior.
Cairo, the student body president, said one of his goals next semester is to launch the “It’s on Us” campaign. The goal is to encourage students to stand up against sexual assault. He hopes raising awareness about the issue may prevent incidents similar to this one.
Garcia is out of jail. A judge ordered him to live with his parents and not to contact the victims in this case.
FAU police trespassed him from campus.
