Windows line the building’s façade on Thursday, April 21, 2022, at Acadian Hall on Highland Road in Baton Rouge, La.
Windows line the building’s façade on Thursday, April 21, 2022, at Acadian Hall on Highland Road in Baton Rouge, La.
A freshman who lived in LSU’s Acadian Hall repeatedly caused disturbances and threatened to fight other residents, prompting reports to ResLife managers and complaints that they were slow to act.
In one disturbance on April 8, the freshman banged on her neighbors’ doors and threatened to fight other Acadian Hall students, witnesses said.
An Acadian Hall resident recorded the outburst in a video that was later posted on TikTok, where it has garnered over 350,000 views and 70,000 likes.
“This week at LSU” and “Just Acadian Hall things” overlay the TikTok with the caption, “We love paying thousands of dollars so we can feel unsafe living on campus.”
The student can be heard in the hallway yelling, “I’m gonna f*** you up. Don’t f****** play with me b****,” before kicking another student’s door and then threatening to fight the student filming the video.
The student who took the video declined an interview with The Reveille. The student who had the outburst also declined to speak to reporters and threatened to press charges against The Reveille.
"We are not at liberty to discuss a student’s health, educational or conduct records," Catherine David, associate director of communication at Residential Life, said. "We want all students to feel and be safe in their communities and address concerns as we receive them."
Acadian Hall is just off Highland Road near The 459 dining hall.
The student’s roommate, graphic design freshman Cassidy O’Brien, was moved to another room in Acadian Hall after her roommate’s viral outburst, which she says was just one of many.
“She’s always been hot-headed and hostile,” O’Brien said. “It just catches me off guard because I’m a very mellow person, and then hearing about how she gets super uppity about someone looking at her wrong or someone giving her an eye.”
O’Brien met her roommate shortly before the 2021 fall semester began. O’Brien found her through LSU’s roommate selection portal.
Soon after the two moved into Acadian Hall, O’Brien noticed her roommate's aggression toward other residents, saying she noticed worrying behavior as early as welcome week.
O’Brien was out of town during her roommate’s viral outburst, but she was moved to a different room on the second floor of Acadian soon after.
O’Brien said she had to move out first so that ResLife could deal with addressing her roommate. Some residents believe that the student was moved to another dorm.
While O’Brien believes ResLife was helpful, she said they could have handled the situation better. O’Brien requested to not have a roommate after the mental health strain the student caused, which resulted in a $500 charge from ResLife.
“I’m angry about the extra $500,” O’Brien said. “I’m angry that they weren’t effective in moving her. I wish they forcibly moved her. That way she’s not inside the hallway because other girls do not feel safe with her around, and they could at least provide that extra safety.”
O’Brien said the situation has left her feeling unsafe on campus.
“I was shaking when I was moving my stuff from our dorm to my new room,” O’Brien said. “I was shaking because I was afraid she was gonna come back and then start fighting or screaming at me.”
Shortly after the TikTok went viral but before the student was moved, kinesiology freshman Hannah Dowell said she was verbally threatened by the student. Dowell also wishes the student had received more disciplinary consequences.
Dowell was doing homework in her dorm when she heard the student being loud in the hallway. When she went into the hallway to ask the student to be courteous of other residents, the student began yelling at her.
“She just starts yelling at me, saying she can do whatever she wants and do as she pleases,” Dowell said. “I go to [the RA’s] door. She follows me and is just yelling at me, ‘don’t get [the RA] involved with this, this is between me and you.’”
The student said “I’ll beat your ass” to Dowell, balled her hands into fists and taunted her to come fight, according to Dowell. This was the first interaction the two ever had.
Afterward, Dowell talked to LSUPD and told them what happened. They asked her if she wanted to press charges, and Dowell said no. The police officers told her that they had no power in removing the student, but that ResLife did.
Since the threat, Dowell has been careful to lock her door. She said residents didn’t receive any emails from ResLife about the situation.
Political science and political communications freshman Emma Long lived a few doors down from the student and said she caused trouble the entire semester. Long sent an email and called ResLife multiple times before visiting ResLife Coordinator Jacob Haun’s office after the episode, and she is upset with how the entire situation was handled.
Other hall residents sent complaints. According to Long, many residents’ parents were also involved. She said that ResLife didn’t provide any useful information to the complaining residents.
"I should've gotten a response that Monday," Long said. "I don't think I would've gotten anything if I didn't go to them in person."
Long said Haun acknowledged her complaints and assured her that ResLife was handling the situation.
Long believes ResLife could do a better job at making residents feel safe. While she understands there are legal precautions and privacy in these matters, she’s disappointed by the effort it took to get ResLife to communicate with them.
“I don’t really think that she should have gotten all of those graces for what she did,” Long said. “Why does she get to terrorize a whole hall and still get to live here? If she was in an apartment complex, this wouldn’t have been tolerated.”
Long is frustrated, believing ResLife “rewards the agitators” in these situations.
For the money she pays to live on campus, Long believes safety is a minimum that students should be assured, and their needs should take priority over the person causing disturbances.
Long didn’t feel comfortable in her own dorm because of the events that took place on Sunday, April 10, and found refuge elsewhere.
O’Brien said that the student was supposed to be relocated by April 14, but that didn’t happen. She heard from other residents that the student was last in the dorm on April 19. O’Brien now believes her former roommate has been removed from Acadian Hall.
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