'Hatred is fueled ... when gender is made to be responsible': UW instructor reflects on 2023 stabbing attack
Sentencing for Geovanny Villalba-Aleman has been delayed until March
Katy Fulfer doesn't want to talk about her personal experience.
She doesn't want to talk about the nightmares.
She doesn't want people to look at her like a victim.
But the University of Waterloo associate professor says she hopes what she's been through — being attacked in her own classroom by a former student who didn't agree with the message in her philosophy of gender course on the afternoon of June 28, 2023 — spurs a larger conversation.
"I feel like my story as a victim as relatively uninteresting," Fulfer told Craig Norris, host of CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition.
"This is not about the individual offender," Fulfer said. "Bigger ideas are circulating in society and causing real impact, not just physical violence, but other forms of violence in our community."
Fulfer was in front of her class when Geovanny Villalba-Aleman entered the classroom with two large kitchen knives hidden in his backpack.
In an audio recording of the attack played in court during a plea hearing last June, Villalba-Aleman can be heard asking Fulfer what class he had just walked into. He then pulled out the knives and stabbed Fulfer in the face and arm. Two students were also stabbed.
Now, Fulfer wants to talk about why it happened, and what can be done to stop another similar attack.
WARNING: Audio contains graphic content from inside a Waterloo university class:
She wants people to understand the real harm anti-gender ideology can present, and how easily a person could get drawn into believing it.
"What is really dangerous about this ideology is that people can take and use it without necessarily feeling like they're committed to discrimination or to hatred," she said.
"When I was listening to some of the social and economic pressures that [Villalba-Aleman] was facing," she added.
"Those aren't unique. Many of my students face those kinds of pressures. [Hatred] is fuelled and amplified when gender is made to be responsible for economic insecurity or any other kind of ways in which the world feels like it's falling apart underneath us."
Ex-student says attack 'wasn't personal'
Villalba-Aleman was supposed to be sentenced on Tuesday in a Kitchener courtroom. The case has been adjourned to March 17.
During his police interview, which was recorded shortly after the attack, Villalba-Aleman is heard telling a police officer the attack wasn't personal. He told the officer he "just wanted to protect the freedom of academia" and believed "woke" ideology was being forced upon classes.
"It was a kind of strange thing to listen to how mundane it was for this person to go about their day and then perform such a horrific act of violence," Fulfer said, reflecting on how easily Villalba-Aleman could have chosen to attack someone else instead of her.
We can come together and support each other and challenge this ideology, but also we have to come together and imagine a world where this violence doesn't exist.- Katy Fulfer
"I didn't know the offender. He didn't know me. He wanted to target a gender studies class and he picked mine because it was in the afternoon, whereas the other one was in the morning," she said.
"It's not personal, but then it's deeply personal because it's about the things I teach and the kind, caring classroom community I try to cultivate. This person didn't know any of that because they didn't know me. So it was such a strong disconnect between that sense of anonymity, but also being targeted because of how I exist professionally in the world."
'Imagine a world where this violence doesn't exist'
Fulfer is speaking out now, not so she can highlight her experience as a victim, but to challenge people to pay attention to "bigger ideas that are circulating in society and causing real impact, not just physical violence, but other forms of violence in our community."
She wants people to focus on the bigger picture.
"We can come together and support each other and challenge this ideology, but also we have to come together and imagine a world where this violence doesn't exist."
Fulfer says the fact that there are some politicians today normalizing anti-gender ideology is frightening.
"It seems like there are politicians who would praise what happened to me or think it's fine or in some cases say things that incite someone to perform such violence," she said.
"People in the those kinds of positions are not necessarily afraid or have fears and anxieties. They're using this [anti-gender] ideology to maintain power. But I think it should be very disturbing for us that basic safety is something that political leaders do not think is afforded to everybody."
Fulfer says building a stronger community may help stop future violence.
"[We should] actually address social problems like how do we address food insecurity? How do we make university less expensive for students?" she asked.
"These are things that would reduce some of the pressures that can destabilize a person's sense of safety and belonging, and might push them in a direction they wouldn't otherwise go if they had a more stable foundation."
Sentencing delayed to March 17
Sentencing for Geovanny Villalba-Aleman has been delayed until March 17.
The former student who pleaded guilty in the 2023 stabbing rampage in a University of Waterloo has apologized for his actions during a sentencing hearing in October.
Villalba-Aleman has pleaded guilty to:
- Two charges of aggravated assault.
- One charge of assault causing bodily harm.
- One charge of assault with a weapon.
At the time of the attack, police called it "a hate-motivated incident related to gender expression and gender identity."
If it's determined Villalba-Aleman carried out a hate-motivated attack, the Crown is asking Justice Frances Brennan to sentence the 25-year-old to a 13-year prison term.
LISTEN| UW associate professor stabbed during gender-studies class speaks out:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
