He came from generations of wealth, educated at an exclusive boys school. He was all-everything: an all-American lacrosse player and the starting quarterback at his high school. She was the daughter of an investor, educated at a private girls prep school. She was a math nerd who volunteered at a soup kitchen and counseled kids from housing projects at a summer camp. They both ended up at the University of Virginia, playing on champion lacrosse teams in a league that gave its players the respect and deference typically reserved for final four basketball teams.

Yet during the early morning hours of Monday, May 3, the privilege of class and wealth no longer served as Yeardley Love's protector. George Huguely V kicked down her bedroom door and, according to his account, grabbed her and shook her head, slamming it repeatedly into the wall. He then seized her computer, where it is believed she read his threatening and angry e-mails. Police found her dead, face down on her pillow in a pool of her own blood.

This wasn't his first episode of violence against a woman. In November 2008, he received a suspended sentence after a drunken scuffle with a Virginia patrolwoman. Officer R.L. Moff recounted his use of racial and sexual slurs and other vulgar terms. He also threatened to kill her or anyone attempting to take him to jail.

What I find most troubling about media reports of this incident are the diluted tones of the headlines. The Washington Post referred to it as the "Virginia lacrosse tragedy." A local paper's headline read: "Students' quarrel turned violent, then deadly." Some media outlets reported the story as a sports feature, and individuals like myself who don't give the sports page a second glance would have easily missed it. It was not widely reported as a case of dating violence and stalking - a violent attack against a woman, where the perpetrator was asserting power and control over his victim.

We know domestic violence, stalking, intimate partner violence, and violence against women is not relegated to the projects and neighborhoods replete with subsidized housing. It crosses all socio-economic strata. One may wonder, however, if this type of incident had occurred at a state university in an impoverished region of the country between an African American football player and a white softball player, would it have ended up on the sports page, the front page? Or no page at all?

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