KY. SCHOOL SHUTS CAMPUS OVER D.C. VIDEO REACTION
COVINGTON, Ky. — A Kentucky boys’ school shut down its campus Tuesday as a precaution and a small protest was held outside its diocese as fallout continued over an encounter involving white teenagers, Native American marchers and a black religious sect outside the Lincoln Memorial last week.
President Donald Trump tweeted early Tuesday that the students at Covington Catholic High School “have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be” but says he hopes the teens will use the attention for good, and “maybe even to bring people together.”
The recorded images that initially generated outrage on social media were tightly focused on the students wearing “Make America Great Again” hats, who seemed to laugh derisively as they surrounded an elderly Native American beating a drum.
Longer videos from wider perspectives emerged later over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. They revealed the drummer — Omaha Nation elder Nathan Phillips — had intervened between the boys and the religious sect. That came after the teens seemed to grow rowdier and the black street preacher who had been shouting racist statements against both groups escalated his rhetoric.
Soon, all sides were pointing fingers, giving their own accounts about feeling victimized and misunderstood.
“We just don’t know what the volatility of the situation is with these people that react and they don’t know the full story. And it’s very scary,” Jill Hamlin of Cincinnati, a chaperone for the boys as they attended an anti-abortion rally, told Fox News on Tuesday morning.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington said in a statement late Tuesday that local police alerted them a protest was planned. It said officials were advised to close school “due to threats of violence and the possibility of large crowds” adding they would reopen school when police “say it is safe to do so.”
The diocese, which previously criticized the students’ behavior, promised to begin its investigation of events this week.
“This is a very serious matter that has already permanently altered the lives of many people. It is important for us to gather the facts that will allow us to determine what corrective actions, if any, are appropriate.”
The school and the diocese websites were taken offline.
The American Indian Movement Chapter of Indiana and Kentucky held a small protest outside the diocese office, with activists outnumbered by the media.