The rape happened Monday in the early afternoon in the first floor women's restroom in the Media Learning Center. The victim reported the attack to police on Wednesday.
"We believe the suspect is also a De Anza student; he's a male between the ages of 18 and 20," Foothill-De Anza Community College District Police Chief Ron Levine said.
Students couldn't believe a violent assault could happen in the middle of the afternoon on a busy school day.
"You think you're safe at a bathroom everyone uses, where hundreds of students run through there every day," student Santiago Loftus said.
Many students on campus say they are always vigilant. Some were getting free rape whistles at the campus health center. Others carry pepper spray.
"'I've been carrying it for a while because I'm a girl, just as a precaution," student Lucero Segura said.
Police believe it was an isolated incident. They say the attacker knows the victim.
