ALLENTOWN, Pa. (WPVI) -- Police are investigating a rape inside a Lehigh County high school, and investigators say it involves two young teens.
It happened at Dieruff High School in Allentown on May 18th.
Authorities say a 15-year-old boy has been charged as a juvenile in connection with the incident.
It apparently took place in the basement, which students say it is under the school's gym and contains a weight training facility.
Action News has learned the 16-year-old victim knew her alleged attacker. Both are said to be students at the school.
Surveillance video shows girl and boy entering a room in the basement and then coming out. There is now word on how long they were in there.
When Action News spoke to students today, their reactions ranged from shrugs to alarm.
Nataly Rios, a freshman at Dieruff, says she got the news from social media.
"I saw it on Facebook," she said. And when asked how people reacted to the news, Dieruff said, "They were mad surprised about it because they didn't know something like that would happen here."
But others were openly skeptical, wondering if it was a consensual relationship gone bad.
Phillip Tayburn, a senior at the high school, summarized what those students were saying, telling us, "A girl wouldn't just go downstairs with a guy for no reason in the basement. Obviously, she must have known him, or they were friends, or that could have been her boyfriend at the time."
Parents were surprised by the news, and asking why they had not been alerted by the Allentown Schools about an alleged sex crime.
One of those parents, Frank Ramirez, reacted by telling us, "I'm annoyed. I mean, I'm upset because this is a serious matter and we should have been notified. I mean, we had no knowledge of this. Nothing at all. And my daughter's a student here."
The school is very quick to make calls about tardiness and other issues, parents say. So the fact that no alert has been sent about an alleged sexual assault has left them baffled.
Action News spoke with a spokesperson for the school district who explained they only learned of the incident this past Wednesday when they were notified by police.
However, there was no explanation as to why the district failed to notify parents or students.