A Singular Incident, Many Points of View. Hopefully Lessons Learned.

*** This following content is written on my own behalf and does not represent the views or opinions of any third party.***

I fully accept the criticism of quickly responding to the incident this weekend as a group of students from Covington Catholic High School wrapped up a day of participating in a Right to Life march and sightseeing in Washington, DC. I posted my disdain about the encounter between these students and a Native American Vietnam veteran, Nathan Phillips, before a 1:46:19 video was shared by a member of a group who refers to themselves as Black Isrealites, also in DC that day. So, I have now gone back to watch every single second of the 1:46:19 video and have read multiple accounts and watched additional videos. 

Here is what I observed in the video, which is widely being positioned as the basis of defense for how and why the kids engaged Mr. Phillips:

* Two minutes into the video, one of the Black Isrealites refers to a group of kids standing not too far from them as, "B*****ds wearing MAGA hats." That is the first point I observed of any interaction between this group and a group of kids (not sure if these particular kids were Covington Catholic HS kids). 

* At roughly 11:30 into the video, the first of many challenges from the Black Isrealites goes out to one of the kids, "Why don’t y'all come up and ask a question, Billy?" 

* At 1:08:43, it appears a larger group of students is forming on the steps behind the Black Isrealites. Things start to escalate from this point as the students verbally engage the Black Isrealites and start chanting, one removing his shirt and finishing with a flex towards the Black Isrealites. I see this as one of many points of potential de-escalation, should a chaperone(s) have stepped in. While there are a few adults, towards the end of the video, who appear to step between the students and the Black Isrealites, one ongoing question in my mind is, could the chaperones have de-escalated all of this by preventing the students from even acknowledging what was being said by this group? But, that's a whole other conversation.

* At 1:12:23, Nathan Phillips appears, drumming and making his way between the crowd of students and the Black Isrealites. By Mr. Phillips' account, he saw it as an opportunity to de-escalate before things got out of control.

* Mr. Phillips is soon in the middle of the crowd and again by his account, one of the students, Nick Sandmann, impeded his path and stared him down. Mr. Sandmann offers a different perspective and said that Mr. Phillips was invading his personal space. Same action, two different perspectives. That being said, my original post did not single out Mr. Sandmann and his interaction with Mr. Phillips. My focus was on the collective reaction of this group of students to Mr. Phillips. A good number of students are engaging in what some have described as ‘singing along’ and ‘dancing and clapping to the beat’ with Mr. Philips.

This is where my point of contention starts and probably one of the biggest points of debate and differing perspectives, which I unfortunately doubt will be resolved in the news media or on social media. I don’t see and hear these students as 'singing along' with Mr. Phillips. I see and hear many of them jeering and mocking. My original post was about my disdain for the disrespect of Mr. Phillips and I have not seen or read any accounts of this incident that defend the behavior of these kids towards a man who, by his account, was trying to de-escalate the situation.

It has been reported that Mr. Phillips thought the kids might attack the group that identifies as Black Isrealites. I didn’t see any evidence of that potentially playing out, but a group of the students, for some reason, did feel the need to get closer to the group known as Black Isrealites. I would never profess to speak for Mr. Phillips, as I don’t know him, nor was I there, but he says what he saw was a group of 4-5 men standing off against a large crowd. I sincerely doubt these kids would have physically attacked this group of men, but none of us can predict the potential spark that could have turned this into something even uglier, if Mr. Phillips hadn’t done what he felt was intervening to de-escalate.

I don’t condone the vitriol and hate that was hurled at these kids, absolutely no one should have to endure that, but it does not change my point of view on what I view as the disrespect and mockery hurled at Elder Phillips, which again, was my original point.

I say a thankful prayer this situation did not escalate into something physical and I hope all involved take something away as a lesson learned. I would love to see Mr. Phillips and these students have a chance to re-engage in a much less tense and chaotic environment.

For me, even though I wouldn't consider myself as an emotionally reactive person, I will challenge myself to slow down to make sure I have seen and heard as many perspectives as possible. In this case, I feel I now have.