This has been on my mind all day, and the whole situation makes me incredibly angry.

I'm sure you're all familiar with the story by now, or at least the libelous version that the media spread yesterday. A video surfaced on the Internet of a group of high school students wearing "Make America Great Again" hats and other pro-Trump attire at the pro-life "March for Life" rally in Washington DC. The video shows an older Native American man, identified as Nathan Phillips, singing and banging a drum in the face of teenage MAGA hat wearing male, while the kid smirked, and his friends sang along. The kids were instantly blasted for "mocking" and "harassing" Nathan Phillips first on social media, and then across basically every news outlet in the United States. Many journalists reported that the the students were chanting "Build the Wall" and were harassing Phillips and other Native American activists, as well as black activists. They reported that the students surrounded Phillips and hurled race-driven insults at him. Phillips helped to build this narrative, and the claim that the students were chanting "build the wall" came from him. The only problem is, none of that is true.

A student that was present at the rally shared his side of the story with a local news station. He explained that the students were instructed to meet at the Lincoln Memorial at 5:30 and wait for the buses to arrive, and that is what they were doing. They were having a little fun by doing school chants and cheers while they waited. He then explains that Nathan Phillips and his fellow activists approached them, not the other way around, like the media had reported. Phillips was beating his drum as he approached, so the student said that he and others though Phillips was joining in on their chants. That's why the student that Phillips approached was smiling in the clip and the other students were clapping and dancing. The student claims that they weren't mocking Phillips, but were having fun, and though Phillips was having fun with them. "However, after multiple minutes of Mr. Phillips beating his drum directly in the face of my friend... we became confused and started wondering what was happening." The student goes on to explain. "As a result, my friend faces expulsion for simply standing still and our entire school is being disparaged for a crime we did not commit." He concludes by saying that they did not intend to mock anyone or incite violence, and they did not chant "build the wall" as Mr. Phillips claims. He also mentions that after the incident they were harassed by a group of black men that called the "faggots," and berated their black friend for being friends with them. You can read his full account here.

As the outrage over the incident has increased, more footage of the incident has surfaced, including a 2 hour long uncut video that shows that everything the student from Covington Catholic High School said is true. The group of students were minding their own business when Nathan Phillips and his men approached them, not the other way around. The students did not surround Phillips as Phillips claimed they did, but rather Phillips pushed himself into the middle of their circle. The students did not mock or insult Phillips at all, but you can hear comments directed at the students from Phillips' crew, such as one telling them to "go back to Europe." The student that everyone has been ripping on, the one that was face to face with Mr. Phillips, actually demonstrated extremely impressive patience and calmness. He didn't say a single word to Mr. Phillips, he just stood there. Additionally, he told one of his friends to stop when the friend began to argue with one of the Native activists. Some people, including Kathy Griffin, want the student expelled, and his name and other information made public. I want to give him a medal for keeping his cool and promoting peace in a tough and uncomfortable situation.

While many that were quick to slam the students have apologized, an overwhelming majority have not, and some have even doubled down. It is absolutely sickening to me that even after being shown concrete evidence that the students did absolutely nothing wrong, some people still want to ruin their lives. To those people though, it doesn't matter what they did or said. The second they put on the MAGA hat the students were guilty in their eyes.

Robby Soave seems to be the only journalist that actually watched the full footage, and his piece on the situation is great, and honest. You can read it here. If you would like to watch the full, uncut footage, you can watch it here. Nathan Phillips enters around the 1:12:00 mark.

What are your thoughts on this? If anyone still thinks the students are in the wrong here, I'd love to debate with you. This will probably get dislikes, but I don't care. I'm still angry about this, and if I can spread the truth to at least one person that didn't know, I'll feel like I've done my part in helping those students.