Teen Girl Allegedly Raped at Vacation Bible School in California

A 19-year-old vacation Bible school volunteer has been arrested and accused of raping a 15-year-old girl at Koinonia Church in Hanford, California.

Local news outlets report Hanford Police say Crispin Ricablanca approached the girl, another volunteer at the camp, in the woman's bathroom two weeks ago and sexually assaulted her multiple times.

Hanford Police say the young girl told an adult about the assault which happened after the event ended for the day. Ricablanca was arrested and is being held on $775,000 bond. The District Attorney's Office has not yet filed charges.

ABC News 7 reports lead Pastor Tim Howard says the church is looking into the matter on its own while Hanford Police conduct an official investigation.

Howard told reporters that staff members have been in contact with both the victim and the suspect, and the church is offering support to both of their families.

"Obviously, it's a heart-wrenching thing to hear about and I want to get to the bottom of the facts," Howard said. "But I want to help them as much as possible to process and walk through this together. So we're open to doing that and are trying to do that to the best of our ability."

He plans to address the incident in a letter to church members and during services on Sunday. 

"I want them to know that our safety procedures are a high standard and (we) are committed to taking care of our kids," Howard said. "And just want to give them feedback from our vantage point, so they won't just draw conclusions on their own from what they hear."

CBN News reached out to the church regarding the incident and recieved a call back but they had no comment.