Two students of Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky, Sam and Grant, made a video statement recently detailing some of the aftermath their school is dealing with after the media featured a short video of a group of students and Native American activist, Nathan Phillips.
The short video of the incident that initially went viral showed student Nick Sandmann “smirking” at Phillips and many in the media reported that the kids were harassing him.
However, a longer video revealed that Phillips first approached the boys and began playing a drum in Sandmann’s face. In a statement, the boy said he was confused by Phillips’s approach and was not meaning to “smirk” or appear disrespectful. He argued that the group of boys had simply done some school spirit chants after another group, the Black Hebrew Israelites, yelled slurs at them. He claimed that they were not antagonizing the activists.
“Several media platforms blatantly lied about the events regarding the controversy in D.C. and it has affected us as a community and individuals greatly,” Grant said of the Covington School community in the video responding to the incident.
"There have been many threats against our lives, against our parents," Sam said. "Some of these threats include that we should all be locked in the school and it should be burned to the ground, the school being bombed, school shooting threats."
“It’s really scary, I know that a lot of people are scared to go to school tomorrow and won’t be attending because of what could happen,” he continued. “There have been cops there ever since the incident and I think there will be a lot more tomorrow.”
“A lot of the negativity and the hate surrounding this event comes from people on social media, doxxing people that were at the event,” Grant said.
The students are struggling with the aftermath of being doxxed - having their personal information publicized online with malicious intent.
Grant said he wasn’t even there in D.C. but he’s been very vocal in defending his school and classmates and he’s been doxed “on three separate occasions.”
Sam said he was also doxxed.
“A lot of people’s parents were also doxxed, their work was called,” he said. “I mean, this could greatly affect their job. They could be fired. There are real consequences for these actions and it all spews from a 30-second clip taken out of a two-hour video out of context and people jumping to conclusions before the full story is released.”
Covington Catholic school was closed Tuesday due to safety concerns as the school continued to receive threats.
President Trump defended the students on Twitter Tuesday morning.
Nick Sandmann and the students of Covington have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be. They have captivated the attention of the world, and I know they will use it for the good - maybe even to bring people together. It started off unpleasant, but can end in a dream!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019