Covington Diocese Bishop Roger Foys has released a statement about the Diocese's investigation into the controversial interaction between students at local Covington Catholic High School and a group of indigenous marchers at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The incident, first captured on viral videos, initially drew widespread condemnation for the students. But longer videos soon emerged, painting a more complex picture.
Initially, the Diocese issued a statement "condemning" the students' actions. But now Foys says an investigation commissioned by the Diocese is complete and shows the students were not at fault in the incident.
"In truth, taking everything into account, our students were placed in a situation that was at once bizarre and even threatening," Foys wrote in a statement. "Their reaction to the situation was, given the circumstances, expected and one might even say laudatory."
The probe by Greater Cincinnati Investigation, Inc. lays out a timeline of events consistent with video footage from the memorial that day.
More than 100 students from Covington Catholic were in Washington, D.C. Jan. 18 to attend the annual "March for Life" event. Some of those students were at the Lincoln Memorial at the same time as four men identifying themselves as members of a group called the Black Hebrew Israelites. The men made offensive statements to the students as well as others nearby. Students eventually responded with chants and school cheers.
A group of attendees at the Indigenous Peoples March that had permits to be at the memorial were also at the site. An elder from the group named Nathan Phillips approached the situation between the teens and the men — he says to calm the confrontation. Phillips and others beat drums and sang as they moved toward the teens, who gathered around the indigenous marchers.
That is the scene initial videos depicted, with one Covington Catholic student, Nick Sandmann, standing across from Phillips. Around the two, students whoop, dance and sometimes do the "tomahawk chop," a gesture used at sporting events that many indigenous people have said they find offensive. Some tense words between an indigenous marcher and a teen are exchanged before both are told by their respective groups to calm down.
Phillips and other marchers later said that students chanted "build the wall" and other slogans related to President Donald Trump. That isn't audible on any videos, the investigation commissioned by the Diocese says.
Eventually, chaperones for the students lead them toward buses to take them away from the memorial and the incident fizzles.
Short clips of the interaction between Phillips and Sandmann were circulated millions of times on various social media sites, some shared by a now-banned Twitter account with a fake avatar. Some initial media reports mistakenly stated that the students instigated the incident. As longer videos showing the entire sequence of events came to light, a backlash against the initial anger at the students formed, and watchers on both sides have debated the meaning of the videos since.
Both Sandmann and Phillips have said they are willing to meet and discuss the incident. In the meantime, the Sandmann family has retained libel attorney L. Linn Wood, who is known for winning big settlements in media defamation cases.
Foys says the Diocese's investigation shows Covington Catholic students didn't start the interaction depicted on the videos.
"Our inquiry, conducted by a third party firm that has no connection with Covington Catholic High School or the Diocese of Covington, has demonstrated that our students did not instigate the incident that occurred at the Lincoln Memorial," he said in his statement. "I thank our students and their parents for their patience while the inquiry we ordered was completed."
