The College of the Canyons Campus Safety Office and Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station are investigating three separate incidents that have occurred at COC’s Valencia campus of a man allegedly filming students in the women’s restroom.  Eric Harnish, spokesman for the college, said that the three incidents date back to April 2024. He said that the student involved in that incident reported it to campus safety officers and they were looking into it.   A second incident was reported in October, and the third reportedly occurred March 4.  Harnish confirmed that a viral video that was posted on social media Tuesday depicts the second incident that occurred in October.   The woman involved in the October incident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she posted the video now because she heard such an incident happened again. She was initially advised by law enforcement in October to not post it as to “not tip off the suspect.”   The October victim said she had noticed someone in the restroom when she first walked in but assumed that it was another woman.   “I didn’t know it was a man. I just saw black socks and black slides,” she said. “I just assumed it was another girl. It was a women’s restroom; I didn’t even think twice about it.”  She said that the man was in the stall farthest from her when she heard a lot of shuffling coming from it. It wasn’t until she got a notification on her phone that caused her to look down that she saw the man lying down on the floor in the stall next to her.   “They could have touched me if they reached their hand out. They had their phone pointed towards me inside my stall,” the victim said.   She said she yelled instantly, which caused the man to go back into the furthest stall to hide and she began recording from that point. She added that what is not included in her videos is her chasing the individual to the parking structure, where she eventually lost him and called 911 for help.   Courtesy of the October victim “I immediately called 911, and while I was on the phone with 911 they told me they would contact the school campus safety,” said the October victim. “They said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll call them for you. Just stay where you are.’   She said after 10 minutes had passed, she thought that campus safety officers would have arrived to her already, so she called the office, and the officers told her they were not aware of her situation.   Deputy Robert Jensen, spokesman for the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, confirmed a 911 call was placed at 9 a.m. on Oct. 22 from the woman involved in the incident.   He said the unit responding to her report was reassigned to an emergency call at 9:15 a.m. and another unit was sent to the location. When deputies arrived to the parking structure, they could not locate the victim and were notified that she was waiting in the campus safety office. They made their way to the office and took a report from her by 10 a.m.  Jensen said detectives with the station are still actively investigating the incident and no arrests have been made.  Following the October incident, Harnish said that COC put out a campus community alert urging students to be aware of their surroundings and to share any information about the incident with the campus safety department.   The third reported incident occurred on March 4 during the afternoon in Halsey Hall, according to the woman involved, who also wished to remain anonymous.   “I went to the restroom and I noticed that someone was in the last stall, the handicap stall, but obviously I didn’t think it was going to be a man so I used the second stall,” said the March 4 victim.   She said a group of girls had walked in and left so she wondered if she was still alone in the bathroom. She looked under the stall to check, that’s when she saw the man lying down between the stalls and his phone camera was pointed towards her.   Both victims said they were unable to get a good look at the man’s face because both times he was covering it with what looked like a head scarf or wrap before he ran off.   “The descriptive information is limited,” said Harnish. “The best description that we have comes from the October incident, which is depicted in the video, but in the other two incidents the victims weren’t able to clearly see the suspect.”   The March 4 victim immediately went to the help desk on campus and got in contact with campus security officers to tell them what happened to her. She added that she recently began filing a report with the sheriff’s station.   Both victims said they are hoping that by sharing their experiences they will be able to get someone to come forward with information that could help apprehend the individual or at least make more people aware on campus.   “I definitely think the college can do better making people aware because emails can get scattered,” said the March 4 victim. “I think they should post the numbers or protocol inside the restrooms and just make sure their staff is aware of it and to be on the lookout for things like that as well. Or regular security checks on the bathrooms.”  If an incident happens on campus, Harnish said students should contact the campus safety office at 661-362-3229 or call the sheriff’s station.  “Student safety is paramount, and all of our campus safety officers have been briefed on what occurred and they’re on alert for future incidents,” said Harnish. “They’re spending extra time in interior buildings and keeping an eye on restrooms.”   He added if there is someone who has information, he encourages them to come forward and share so the individual can be identified.   The post COC and LASD investigating a man allegedly filming women in bathrooms   appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal. ...read more read less