By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

Police in the San Francisco suburbs are investigating a horrendous incident in which a 15-year-old girl was apparently gang-raped and assaulted for two and a half hours. People allegedly watched and didn't report it. The incident took place outside of a high school homecoming dance.

Entire sociological studies have been conducted on how people can participate and/or witness such an event without doing something. It's an a aberation of human nature that I don't think I'll ever fully understand.

According to this CNN report, police are rounding up a number of suspects.

The school may come in for a share of the blame. A school board member says the area outside the building wasn't monitored properly. It should have been. Sad to say, schools have to saturate their functions with monitors, inside and outside the buildings. Too much can go wrong, no matter what kind of school or socioeconomic status we're talking about.