A video snippet hides a full story

A one-hour, 46-minute video presents a fuller picture of the Friday events that culminated with students from the allmale Covington Catholic High School coming face-to-face with Nathan Phillips, a longtime Native American activist and Vietnam War veteran.

According to the Covington Catholic boys, the chaperone told them to chant back at the Black Hebrew Israelites — who started this confrontation. The chaperone should have said, “We need to move to a safer place.” Instead, the chaperone encouraged confrontation and for the kids to remain there. What kind of chaperone is that? Wayne Gregersen

The full video shows nothing different from what was a clearly a hazing of a drumming veteran gentleman. Teresa Diagostino

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wearing a cap that says “Make America Great Again.” I have watched every video I can find, and these boys did absolutely nothing wrong. In fact, I’m proud of the way they behaved while being intimidated. The news media need to apologize to these young men. Sheila Thompson

Phillips has said from the beginning that another group was taunting the students, and the students started yelling back. When a kid took off his shirt and both sides really got going, Phillips said he and his group stepped between hoping to stop it from getting worse. The folks from Phillips’ group actually appear to have stopped a full-on fight. Joyce Grant Resh

I agree that the news media might have exaggerated the reporting of this issue, but this group of teenagers is not blameless. Several of them appear to be mocking the Native Americans. This is either outright racism, or evidence that they’ve been raised in a place where racism is so ingrained that it isn’t even recognized, and so it is tolerated and encouraged. Mary Pistulka

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