Laken Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University Athens campus nursing student, began Thursday Feb. 22 with a run—a usual habit of hers—before being found unresponsive on a campus trail.
However, the media and government’s discussion around her tragic passing has yet to mention the common occurrence of unprompted violence women encounter at the hands of men — documented or undocumented.
Despite The Stallion‘s eagerness to attend the Georgia College Press Association conference the looming tragedy took precedence in Athens.
The energy in Athens was bleak. Women attending The University of Georgia who I know personally contacted me in fear for our group. Well wishes and expressions of concern skated in and out of my phone’s messages.
I can not recall the amount of times I reinforced the idea “no one is going out alone” to our newspaper staff once learning the news.
Staff of UGA’s Red and Black filed in and out of the GCPA conference on Friday, Feb. 23, loaded down with cameras and laptops to break news regarding their peer’s tragic death.
The pre-conference mixer ended earlier than anticipated on Thursday evening; a somber energy flooded the room as staff struggled to explain the horrific reality on campus that day.
No one deserves to be punished for exercising their right to leave their own home. Women should not fear their daily activities.
Riley was a nursing student who cared about humanity and compassion in a personal and professional way. She was wrongly punished for encountering an individual who only intended to harm others—her complete opposite.
According to The Red and Black’s reports, Riley’s death was referred to as a “crime of opportunity” by UGA Chief of Police Jeff Clark at a press conference on Friday.
Bleak does not begin to describe a woman’s morning run being an “opportunity” for an atrocity.
Riley’s sorority, Alpha Chi Omega, mourns in the wake of this tragedy. The sorority’s national philanthropy being Domestic Violence Awareness makes the situation all the more heartbreaking.
Being a part of advocating against violence and working to support future patients, only for Riley to be taken by violence, makes my blood run cold.
When will this violence against women stop?
All throughout Athens, conversations about self-defense courses were heard in small whispers. During the collegiate newspapers’ pre-mixer, two UGA students and I discussed ambiguously-shaped self-defense keychains meant to avoid detection.
I can’t help but be perturbed by the reality women face after such horrific acts of violence occur in their communities.
We are told to give perpetrators a reason to give up; bark, scream, lash out, have pepper spray, have a police baton, or do anything to make them give up on attacking you.
Instead of teaching men not to harm women, we are expected to learn how to fight against them.
While the suspect has been charged and booked, per The Red and Black, Riley deserved to run that morning and return home to her roommates.
Even after returning to Southwest Georgia, I continue to think about Laken Riley and her honorary white coat symbolizing a promising future committed to healing and caring for others.
The Stallion keeps UGA and Laken Riley’s family in thoughts and prayers as they continue to ask for privacy in their time of mourning.