University Police said no violent incidents occurred during the protest held by the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., Monday in front of the Student Union despite the several hundred Nicholls community members who counter-protested.”Students were very well behaved and did everything they were asked,” Craig Jaccuzzo, director of University Police, said. “They proved that the hateful message could not provoke them.”

The area surrounding the Bollinger Memorial Student Union was surrounded by 19 uniformed police officers. A standby unit was stationed at the football stadium, and six other officers were located in the parking lots surrounding the protest area.

Eight protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church initiated the protest. The group was escorted to and from the protest area by police officers, and the area they protested in was surrounded by barricades.

“I know they may not be very happy that we barricaded them in, but it was the only way for us to make sure this protest was safe,” Eugene Dial, vice president for student affairs, said. “However, it appears that most students were simply making fun of the group.”

Protesters walked around in the barricaded area for 30 minutes dragging American flags and carrying signs reading: “God Hates Fags,” “God Hates America,” “Thank God for 9/11,” “Thank God for Tsunami” and “Your Pastor is a Whore.”

“The protest went great,” Steve Drain, one of the protestors, said. “The people here said they were going to ignore us, but obviously that didn’t happen. We had a message to communicate, and we communicated it. The message is that there is a God, there is a hell and there will be a judgment day. It is not okay to be gay. It never was okay. God’s word never changes.”

Erik Jordan, president of the Gay/Straight Alliance, said in his personal opinion that the protest was “really lame, pathetic.” However, he said he thinks that this group believes what they are protesting is right.

“One of the protestors came up closer to me and said ‘Erik, you know you’re going to hell.’ I kind of shrugged and she said, ‘Please change that.’ Who am I to say that their message is wrong? I’m not God. We (the Westboro Baptist Church and I) have the same will and desire-to make a better world. We just have opposite beliefs. Who’s the one to decide who’s on the right side?”

Jordan said it was heart warming to see the student body come together at the protest.

“For the first time that I know of, Nicholls students came together as one and came together to fight for one purpose,” Jordan said. “There were some people there who had already told me they were against homosexuality, but were still there to stand up for it. I think this has caused a positive effect on this school.”

Several students wore red T-shirts reading “Love, Dignity, Respect-NSU Comes Together to Stop the Hatred” to the protest. Sara Shields, biology junior from Thibodaux, ordered and sold 100 of the T-shirts and received help from St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center in selling them in the Student Union.

“A read an article about the protest in The Tri-Parish Times and had these designed because I knew we had to do something,” Shields said.

Several students took pictures of the protest-some using their camera phones-or videoed the event. Many said they had never been to a protest and were curious about what it would entail.

“I read about it in The Courier, and my professor let us out of class,” Matthew LeBlanc, mass communication junior from Raceland, said. “I figured it would be the only chance for me to see something like this.”

Students also said they were surprised that only eight protesters came.

“I cannot believe they came with only eight people to protest an entire school,” Sherry Wilmore, government junior from Houma, said. “If they wanted to protest they should have come full out and protested big.”

Cherry Wilmore, government junior from Houma, said, “This is a disgrace. God hates sin not just sinners. If they wanted to come they should have come against all sin, not just one.”

Brandon Zeringue, art senior from Ama, attended the protest dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz with a sign reading “I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore,” accompanied by a dog in representation of Toto.

“You can’t fight fire with fire so I brought Kool Aid,” Zeringue said. “They came here distracting us while we were all trying to study and ending up the semester, so I just wanted to make as light of the situation.