Diocese Report: Covington Teens Did Nothing To Provoke Nathan Phillips’ Chanting And Drumming
Tom Pappert
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After the massive media outrage surrounding their teenage students at the March For Life, the Catholic Diocese of Covington hired a private investigator to determine whether the students were guilty of any wrongdoing.
The report reveals the Covington teens did nothing racist, did not lead a “Build the Wall” chant, and Nathan Phillips began chanting and drumming in the students’ faces unprovoked.
Among the findings revealed in the final report, Greater Cincinnati Investigation determined that the students used a Covington Catholic school chant to drown out the Black Hebrew Israelites, but did “found no evidence that the students performed a ‘Build the Wall’ chant.”
They also determined that Phillips approached the students after the tense interaction with the Black Hebrew Israelites, leading some students to believe he desired to join in their school chant. “None of the students felt threatened by Mr. Phillips,” noted the investigators, “and many stated they were ‘confused.'”
Investigators also found no evidence of the students making racist anti-Native comments to Phillips, writing that they “found no evidence of offensive or racist statements by students to Mr. Phillips or members of his group,” and that the students were generally nonplussed by Phillips, and more interested in drowning out the Black Hebrew Israelites with their school chants.
The report also reveals that Covington Catholic has no rules prohibiting wearing political clothing, including the Make America Great Again hats sported by many of the students. Some of the school’s chaperones added that students purchased and wore t-shirts with the “Hope” slogan popularized by President Barack Obama in previous years during the annual trip to Washington, D.C.
They also determined that the individual who remarked “it’s not rape if you enjoy it” was not a Covington Catholic student, and further that students stated “he doesn’t go to CovCath” on video only moments after the insensitive comment was made.
Further, the two teenage boys who made inappropriate comments toward women that were recorded in a viral 7-second video could not be determined to be Covington Catholic students.
Greater Cincinnati Investigation concluded that the account posited by Nicholas Sandmann, the student at the center of the viral video, appears consistent. However, they did note that “Mr. Phillips’ public interviews contain some inconsistencies,” and that they “have not been able to resolve them or verify his comments due to [their] inability to contact him.”
L. Lin Wood, the Atlanta-based libel lawyer representing the Sandmann family, has already promised to sue Phillips for the inaccurate statements he made about Sandmann and the Covington teens.
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