The Article below was published in Vol. 135, Issue 4 of the Lake Forest College Stentor on December 6, 2019
By Maryam Javed ’21
Opinions Editor
Ruth George, a sophomore and honors student at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) was slain and sexually assaulted on November 23 after ignoring a man’s catcalls. He followed her into the UIC parking lot from a bus stop, raped her, then strangled her to death. She was found after her sisters tried tracking her phone because she did not return home. Accompanied by police, they discovered their sister in the back seat of her car and unresponsive. Ruth George had been brutally killed on her own college campus.
The murderer, who was identified from surveillance videos in the area and already on parole for another crime, was charged with first-degree murder and criminal sexual assault. He confessed to the killing, saying he was angry that Ruth ignored his advances.
What is truly horrific about this story is the fact that what happened to Ruth could happen to anyone. A lot of women who are catcalled, including myself, usually ignore these crude advances and continue to move forward in their day. Yet, Ruth was not so lucky and was killed for ignoring her attacker.
I believe in order to prevent tragedies like this from occurring again, institutions and college campuses like UIC should increase their security and have 24-hour surveillance of places such as parking lots, where students can easily be attacked. Unfortunately, it seems like the toxic culture of catcalling women is something that cannot be removed easily from society and is an issue that every woman faces throughout the world. However, college campuses can prevent students from being attacked or harassed if they have security or public safety around all areas of campus no matter what time of day, but especially at night when many of these attacks, including this one, occur. Students should always feel safe on their college campus. They should feel comfortable to go to events at all times of the day, and should not be fearful for their lives.
Though public safety or campus security cannot go beyond the scope of the campus, the least they can do is provide 24-hour security to prevent any outsiders from intruding on the premises of the school.
Ruth George was a very talented young woman and was on a pre-health track. She wanted to help people. Her family released a statement about their loss, saying: “Ruth lived out her deep faith in Jesus by loving and serving others, leaving a legacy of Christ-centered kindness and sacrifice. She was the beloved baby of our family. We grieve with hope. We hold no hatred towards the perpetrator, but our hope is no other girl would be harmed in this way and for a mother to never experience this type of heartache.”
I agree with Ruth’s family that no other girl should be harmed in this way and no mother should experience this type of heartache. This is why colleges and universities across the country and even around the world, need to bolster their security to protect their students and allow them to feel safe in a place of learning; a place that is supposed to represent peace. This toxic misogynistic culture of catcalling cannot be erased, but college campuses as a whole must take stronger measures to prevent attacks like these from taking place.
Maryam Javed can be reached at javedm@mx.lakeforest.edu
