Livonia High grapples with tragedies; building trust to stop Baton Rouge violence

The Advocate's Top Headlines

with Matthew Albright | Assistant metro editor

Good morning! Here's some of our most interesting reads from over the weekend.

Tragedies strike a small-town school

First, a double homicide, then COVID: deadly tragedies have struck Livonia High School, the only public high school in Pointe Coupee Parish, fast and hard in the past month.

This story tells how the school, which is the heart of the small town, has turned into a place for mourning, a place where friends and family can lean on each other in their time of grief.

Building trust to stop the violence

As Baton Rouge tries to stop a soaring homicide rate, it has created a new team of residents who live in or have a history with the neighborhoods where the violence is happening. Working mostly independently of the police, the teams aim to build trust in the communities so they can try to intervene before the gunshots ring out.

We followed one of those teams as they did their work. This story explains why they hope their approach can break the deadly cycle.

Backstory to the deadly nursing home debacle

Bob Dean is now infamous as the owner of seven Louisiana nursing homes that all evacuated their residents to a Tangipahoa warehouse during Hurricane Ida, where catastrophic conditions led to several deaths. But even before that, Dean was under scrutiny by state regulators.

This story digs into investigations and reports of abuse at an eighth home that Dean used to own. They include accusations that residents went unfed and were not given their medicine when staffing shortages weren't fixed.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!