John Jay students were shocked by the sexual assault on their campus

An offender sexually assaulted a person in the restroom at John Jay College of Criminal Justice earlier this month, the school told students on Friday.

The attack occurred sometime during the week of Sept. 2 in a “restroom on campus,” according to an email from the college titled “Clery Crime Alert/Timely Warning.”

“Crime alerts are issued to alert John Jay College to any situation that poses a potential threat to the safety and well-being of the people who live, work, study and visit campus,” the email said.

But the warning, which is required on campus under the federal Clery Act, gave almost no details about the alleged crime, including whether the victim was male or female or when exactly it happened.

The law requires universities to make students aware of certain criminal offenses.

The school's fall semester began on August 28th.

A John Jay representative said the school is “actively investigating the alleged incident.”

“While we cannot comment on the current investigation, the safety and well-being of our students remains our highest priority and we are committed to providing a safe campus environment for all members of our community,” they continued.

“Counselling and support services are available to students, faculty and staff affected by this incident.”

The NYPD was apparently not informed of the incident, a police spokesman told the Post.

Several students on campus were surprised by the alert on Saturday and the long wait for the college to release it, they said.

“It's pretty crazy that this happened here, especially because this is a criminal justice school,” said Jaylen Hernandez, a 19-year-old sophomore.

“It's also crazy that they focus so much on it when, for example, an alumni dies,” Hernandez said. “Every time an alumni dies, I get a notification on my phone from the school … and I think to myself: [the sexual assault] happened and we didn't know about it.”

A 22-year-old student who earned her bachelor's degree from Penn State and had just begun her master's degree in forensic psychology at John Jay was distraught by the attack.

“I was shocked when I saw the email and realized that something like this happened here – at a criminal justice school of all places – but unfortunately I feel that sexual assault can happen anywhere,” she said.

She called the college's warning this week a “delayed response.”

“I know that if I had been studying for my bachelor’s degree, they would have sent the notification immediately,” she said.

“So when I saw that it was from the first week of school, I thought, 'Why are we only finding out about this now?'”

Other students took the warning calmly.

“We wish this hadn't happened, but it's New York,” said Arnold, a 17-year-old college freshman who asked not to be identified.

“I hope the school fixes this and similar problems so that something like this doesn't happen again,” he said. “It's pretty scary.”

The freshman said he hadn't seen the notice anywhere on campus.

Heidy Velasquez, a 19-year-old second-year student, said faculty in her program held a mandatory meeting following the notification on Friday and asked students to come forward if they had been victims of assault.

“If anything inappropriate or non-consensual ever happens to you, you can come to us,” she said faculty members said.

She was pleased that the school informed students about the obligation to report sexual assault, but was frustrated that the notification came a week after the alleged assault.

“It's frustrating,” she said, “because at a school with such a high reputation, they should say something right away.”