While school was in session last week, a 12-year-old girl at an El Cerrito school was raped by a 14-year-old boy. Allegedly. According to AP, "[p]olice say the girl was attacked at the Portola Middle School around 2:40 p.m. Thursday."

The attack happened in a school stairwell during school hours. SF Chron reports: "The stairwell was empty because class was in session ... The two students, who apparently know each other, had passes or reasons not to be in class."

A student who entered the stairwell and saw the alleged rape in progress reported it to school authorities. "Officers arrested the suspect at his home in Richmond around 8 p.m. Thursday." He was then whisked to juvenile hall in Martinez.

Due to the alleged assault, the school's Principal, Denise VanHook, and Assistant Principal, Matthew Burnham, were immediately "placed on paid administrative leave while the school district's investigation is going on," AP goes on to report.

School Site Supervisor Mustapha Cannon, who neither witnessed the rape nor visited the victim, told KRON 4 this morning that "it wasn't really a rape" and demanded a public apology for the Principal, who is his friend. Cannon went on to say that the two students involved in the rape were "aren't as popular as other kids" and that this is simply a case of "hormones gone wild."

Anyway, this most recent (alleged) rape follows the October gang rape of a student at Richmond High, where a teenager was beaten and raped over a two-and-a-half hour period on school grounds during a homecoming dance. Cody Smith, 15, and Ari Morales, 16; Marcelles Peter, 17; Manuel Ortega, 19, Jose Montano, 18, and Elvis Torrentes, 21, are currently waiting to stand trial in the Richmond case.