Safety has become a pressing issue after the abduction late last month, some students said.

The Oracle contacted students from each grade level using simple random sampling, on their home phones Nov. 7 through Nov. 10. After the abduction, 47 percent of students surveyed felt less safe compared to before the incident (67 students surveyed).

Freshman Michael Anderson said he felt less safe after the abduction. “It never came to my attention the number of criminals out there at home when my parents aren’t around,” he said. “I always feel like I have to keep the door locked.”

Out of the students surveyed, 30 percent made changes to their lifestyle after hearing of the attack. “If I ever [have to] walk home at night, I try to walk with friends or get a ride,” sophomore Sam Putney said.

Junior Christine Juang also felt less safe. “I’m a lot more careful when I’m out and about,” she said. “I try to stay in big groups and not be by myself too much.”

For sophomore Brandon Cheung, the changes were mental rather than physical. “I try to keep a higher guard around myself and keep more in touch with things around me,” he said.

Directly following the incident, the Palo Alto Police Department (PAPD) stationed officers around the crime scene. “The day after the abduction, we had about 20 police cars on Arastradero between Gunn and El Camino,” PAPD detective Brian Philip said. “There was a police car about every two blocks.”

The PAPD also assigned police officers to school campuses. “We already have a police officer assigned to each school in Palo Alto,” Philip said.

Even though the PAPD, with help of nearby police departments, arrested a suspect two days after the attack, some students expressed anger towards the city. “I was disgusted,” junior Gabriel Lewis said. “Palo Alto is a safe place.”

Fifty-two percent of females and 44 percent of males surveyed said that they felt less safe compared to before the attack occurred (27 females and 43 males surveyed).“I was shocked and I didn’t believe that it happened,” sophomore Inga Manasherob said. “It surprised me because the road was full and people should [have seen] the incident.”

Sophomore Bharat Reddy felt similarly. “I thought it was kind of scary because Palo Alto is supposed to be a safe neighborhood,” he said. “It could have been anyone walking down the street.”

The experience was a rude awakening for some students. “Incidents like this always remind me to be more aware of the possibilities of something like this happening,” junior Catharine Steinkamp said. “I never really walk around Palo Alto feeling 100 percent safe, but this made me feel a little bit more on edge.”

Junior Taylor McAdam also expressed apprehension. “It was really scary and horrible to imagine that it happened to one of our students,” she said.

Senior Gary Fukomoto was more concerned about his family members than himself. “I’m not really that worried about getting abducted,” he said. “I’m more worried about my sister.”

Some students said their parents also had emotional responses to the incident. “[My parents] were both really upset,” sophomore Sanjana Rajan said. “It hit really close to home for them because they thought it could have easily happened to me.”

Some parents’ reactions were more extreme. “My parents told me to never to be by myself ever again,” Juang said.

Sophomore Jacob Nuegass parents had a similar reaction. “[My parents] were really shocked and they talked to everyone,” he said. “They gave us instructions on how to travel in groups.”

Three campus supervisors currently supervise the campus during school hours. They also occasionally patrol areas close to campus. “They sometimes check around Georgia [Street], just making sure things are safe,” Principal Noreen Likins said.

The Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) employed security guards from a private company, Personal Protective Services, from the summer of 2006 until September 2007.

The guards patrolled all PAUSD campuses at night, from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. The administration had to cut the guards’ employment time short because of the California School Employee Association’s (CSEA) complaints about using non-union employees. “I would love to have [the guards] back, but objections from CSEA resulted in PAUSD ending the contract with the private company,” Likins said.

—Additional reporting by Aurelle Amram, Libby Craig, Jocelyn Ma, Ann Abraham, Amy Yu, Carissa Ratanaphanyarat, Amarelle Hanycez, Beth Holtzman, Bauer Wan, Jon Proctor, Michelle Fang, Sasha Guttentag, Susan Lee and Tenny Zhang