Recently at rapper Travis Scott’s Astroworld concert, eight people died and hundreds were injured due to a crowd surge that led to many casualties.

According to Houston Public Media’s Paul DeBenedetto, the crowd began to surge after 9 p.m. Shortly after, many people started to collapse and pass out, which escalated panic. Although there were hundreds of police and security at the event, the surge happened quickly and thus overwhelmed police and firefighters.

This tragedy made the Houston Astroworld Concert one of the deadliest concerts in history. Students empathize with the victims and their families.

“My heart goes out to all the victims and their families. They all went to enjoy their time but didn’t return home,” sophomore Jojo Liebreich said.

There have been many theories as to what actually happened at the concert. Authorities have launched an investigation, and there have been reports that someone was injecting fans with drugs. There have also been Twitter conspiracies that Scott is a Satanist who was promoting satanic messages throughout the concert.

The uncertainty of the reason for the surge remains unclear, and many students at WJ have mixed opinions on who to blame.

Sophomore David Ogunnusi thinks that Scott is not to blame for the incident; rather, it is the fault of the security personnel.

“[The security] didn’t do a good job at protecting the people and ensuring that drugs didn’t enter the concert. It isn’t Travis’ fault that people were injecting others with drugs because he couldn’t do anything about it,” Ogunnusi said.

Senior Sara Susa had different opinions and thinks that Scott is to blame, because, even though he saw everyone yelling for help, he continued with the event.

“It’s kind of ridiculous. The entire concert isn’t on him because it’s not completely his fault, but at the same time there were people going up to him and climbing on the stage, telling him that people are hurt and to stop the concert, and he wasn’t even fazed by it. A lot of times when you see artists doing a mosh pit [that gets out of hand], they’ll stop it and calm it down because people are falling. But he didn’t seem to care and he wasn’t apologetic,” Susa said.

Many people who had attended the event posted videos on social media platforms, such as TikTok, to showcase the tragedy. Many complained that Scott was aware of what happened but disregarded it while many were being trampled and trying to help the victims.

Senior Amaya Bailey argues that the victims and their families need to be compensated in some way for their loss.

“I think what happened was really horrible, and they should have stopped the show right away. It’s crazy how they just ignored what happened and didn’t do anything to stop it. I think the [families of the people] that died need some sort of reimbursement and closure,” Bailey said.

Others are unsatisfied with the lack of accountability Scott will likely face from the music industry.

“He didn’t really care for the consequences. He took others’ lives and only cared about himself at the time, because people were literally climbing on the stage telling him to stop. I don’t think the music industry will change its opinion on him because they don’t give a crap about what other people do,” Susa said.