Baton Rouge residents weathered an array of emotions this summer — from disgust and outrage after the killings of Alton Sterling and three area law enforcement officers to heartbreak and devastation when flooding rampaged through South Louisiana.
For University students, many of whom watched the summer’s events unfold from out of state, fear may have also been added to the mix.
Mass communication sophomore Marquez Anderson followed the events from his hometown, McComb, Mississippi. Though he was not in Baton Rouge at the time of the shootings, he said the tragedies and subsequent protests made him apprehensive about returning to the University.
“When you have to start being fearful about your life and the people around you, it just takes things to a whole different level,” Anderson said. “That’s what made it so scary for me.”
He said he knew a few people in Baton Rouge at the time of the shootings, but they were not hurt.
Even though emotions from that divisive July were somewhat extinguished by the floodwaters of the last week, Anderson said he was still worried about how the campus would come together when the semester began.
“Baton Rouge was divided at some point,” he said. “It felt like it was a war between Americans and the police themselves. It’s not really something that can just be resolved overnight.”
University students and alumni organized and led several events this summer in an attempt to unite the community. Two rallies, a “Unity Prayer” and the “Forever Baton Rouge” vigil, were held at Memorial Tower following the deaths of Sterling and the three law enforcement officers: Brad Garafola, Montrell Jackson and Matthew Gerald.
Anderson said his parents did not try to talk him out of coming back to the University, though he said they did have concerns. Together, they discussed how to handle certain situations, places he should avoid and times he should not go to certain areas.
“They had their doubts about what was going on because it seemed like … no one was working toward a resolution,” Anderson said. “When things of that nature are going on, any parent will naturally feel concern for their child.”
Petroleum engineering junior Drumil Parekh echoed those sentiments of fear and worry. He heard the news of Baton Rouge’s shootings from his home in Singapore and began to worry for his friends back in Louisiana.
He said some of his friends stayed in their homes, scared to leave, while others tried to find ways to help.
“They felt a little helpless in this case,” Parekh said. “They felt like they didn’t have much say out there.”
Parekh, who works as a residential assistant in Blake Hall, said RAs underwent training that included information on how to talk to incoming students about the summer’s tragedies. They learned how to broach the topic and how to guide the conversation.
Accounting sophomore Kendall Calvin, an RA in Kirby-Smith Hall, is from the Baton Rouge area. She said the events surrounding the shootings were new, terrifying experiences for her and many of her friends.
“We’ve never had anything like that happen here,” Calvin said. “We knows there’s always issues with the police in some parts of town, but we’ve never witnessed it in that big of a scale.”
Following the shootings, Calvin said she was worried about things escalating further. She felt the situation would not get out of control, as Louisianians “can think level-headed when [they] need to.”
Sofia Horadam, a biology sophomore from Victoria, Texas, said she was well-acquainted with the Black Lives Matter movement and the dialogue surrounding police brutality prior to the shootings.
When news of Sterling’s death first broke, she viewed it as “just another shooting.” But then came a moment of sobering realization.
“It was like, ‘Wow … this is where I live,’” Horadam said. “It was weird to think about.”
Horadam said she thinks people are nervous, particularly since the Sterling shooting did not happen too far from campus and several violent neighborhoods border the University.
Concerns did not end with the shootings. Students and parents also worried over possible damage to the University and surrounding areas from historic floodwaters, which the American Red Cross deemed the “worst natural disaster to strike the United States since Superstorm Sandy.”
More than 40,000 homes were affected by flooding across the state, according to the Red Cross, and more than seven trillion gallons of rain fell over the course of a few days — enough to fill 10 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Parekh said he did not see the worst of the flood, as he was living on campus and the University sustained minimal damage, according to LSU President F. King Alexander’s email update Friday. He heard students moving in talk about how bad flooding was in their homes and saw them sharing pictures of the damage.
He said parents and students did not mention any concerns about campus safety during move-in because “there were too many other things going on.”
“People were just happy about the fact they’re moving in, and they’re getting into the dorms safely,” Parekh said.
Calvin said she started to feel overwhelmed when the flooding began, as it seemed the city had already dealt with enough during the summer.
“When it rains, it pours,” she said.
She said knowing her friends and family were safe helped her diminish much of her concern. Some of the early arrivals on campus during the flood were also stressed, she said.
Calvin hasn’t spoken to many out-of-state students about the summer. She said she could tell from move-in that many were concerned, though she said she thinks most of them will be able to adapt as the fall semester begins.
“Baton Rouge is a special place,” Calvin said. “Even though we’ve been through a lot, we’re coming back a lot stronger. It’s going to be fun to see how we come up from this.”
William Taylor Potter contributed to this report.