The Chilling Case of Jeanne Clery
The namesake of the Clery Act was an average co-ed in the 1980s until one opportunistic burglar brutally murdered her.
According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), 13% of all undergraduate/graduate college students experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation.
On its own, 13% may seem like a low number, but when put into context, it is alarmingly high. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a projected 19.7 million students were slated to attend college/university in the fall.
13% of 19,000,000 is 2,470,000.
It doesn’t seem like such a low number now, does it?
I bring up these statistics because they are important to be aware of when reading the rest of this story. That’s because, in 1986, these statistics were not available to students or parents. Or, if they were, there was no law in place the required them to be shared with those affected.
On April 5, 1986, Jeanne Ann Clery was a freshman at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Her dormitory, Stoughton Hall, had laughably poor security, as students often propped open automatic doors to let their friends come and…
