Police in Toronto have charged 16 students after a teenaged girl was allegedly harassed and repeatedly sexually assaulted at her high school.

The girl, 15, attends James Cardinal McGuigan Catholic Secondary School in the Jane and Finch area of the city. She allegedly endured assaults and harassment for more than a year.

Last week, police charged a 15-year-old boy with sexual assault, criminal harassment, and forcible confinement. A 17-year-old was also charged with sexual assault, assault, forcible confinement, and failure to comply with probation.

On Monday, police laid charges against 14 more students, bring the total number of people charged in the case to 16.

Of the 14 charged on Monday, 12 males are charged with criminal harassment, and two females have been charged with threatening bodily harm.

Police are limited in the information they can reveal about the case, as many of the accused are young offenders. But it is alleged much of the harassment happened within the school itself, and also took place off school property.

The arrests happened after an incident last Wednesday when the girl told a staff member about an incident. The staff member then called police.

After arriving at the school, police arrested a young man. They also took the female  complainant to the police station for a statement. Another man was then arrested on Friday.

After further investigation, police returned to the school on Monday morning where they arrested 14 other students.

Toronto Police Det. Peter Duncan defended the decision to arrest the accused at their school.

"It was logistical," he explained to Canada AM. "We had over a dozen students to seek out and arrest. To do that separately at different homes would have been very difficult. If any of the students were missed, they might have been on the loose and it would have been a threat to the victim.

"The victim's address is known to many of the students and many of the people involved. So it was important to keep the victim safe."

The school board says it knew nothing about the assaults until last week.

"There were no cries for help, no screaming, nothing like that," a board spokesperson told CTV News. "It was a student who came forward as a result of a very serious incident that happened."

The victim didn't want to appear on camera, but told CTV News she wants to go back to the school, and doesn't want to be chased away.

Some students at the school have expressed concern about the impression such allegations could make on the school's reputation.

"This is certainly not the only school in Toronto, and not the only school in this division where bad things occasionally happen," Det. Jon Ling told a news conference.

"But, the staff has stepped up and stepped forward, and nobody tried to hide anything, and I think it's a right step. This is how problems are solved."

Some students at the school suggested to reporters that the victim could have made up the story, but the police say that's not the case.

"We have conducted an investigation, there were a number of issues that we looked at," McIlnone told the news conference. "We believe that this in fact took place."

The 14 students facing the latest charges are scheduled to appear in court Tuesday at 9 a.m.

Ontario's Minister of Education Gerard Kennedy said he can't comment on the specifics of this case, but he's promising help for any student who may find themselves in such a situation.

This week the provincial government is unveiling a new anti-bullying program. It's designed to make schools safe, and will include a place at every Ontario school where students can go if they are being terrorized.

"I want people to believe this strongly, that it is not inevitable that our schools have incidents like this, we can make our schools even safer and that there is a tremendous amount of effort being focused on that end," Kennedy said Monday at Queen's Park.

"We can't rest as long as incidents like that are taking place in any of our schools."