On Friday January 18, young teenage boys harassed an elderly Native American man named Nathan Phillips. A video of a young boy standing in front of Philips and staring at him as he played his drum went viral.
Phillips is a Vietnam veteran and deserves a lot more respect than he got on that day from those teenage kids. The ignorance of these kids is shocking.
During an interview Phillips claimed to have heard these students say “Build that wall” repeatedly. Clearly these children are not being given the best education because if they were, none of this would have happened.
These students could have put the energy they had into much better use. They could have protested a real world issue rather than harassing this innocent man for not doing anything to them other than serve their country. This Veteran put his life on the line for their country and that’s what he got from them in return – harassment.
That hats they were wearing that said “Make America Great Again” definitely contradict what they did to Phillips. They weren’t making America great again by harassing this man. They were causing more trouble to America. They were creating hate and fear. They were being stupid and ignorant.
The Catholic school these teenage boys attend stated that the matter is being investigated and that appropriate action will be taken. The High School said that students may face consequences as extreme as expulsion.
As much as these teenage kids are to blame for their actions, the school is also to blame for what they did. It’s not enough to just expel these students. They’re obviously not providing them the education they need because if they were providing a good education, these kids wouldn’t have harassed a Native-American man. The solution isn’t expelling these kids, the solution is changing the educational system and teaching kids to respect all races. Teaching them that all races and religions matter is what’s missing in their education.
In his tweet about the the whole situation, Donald Trump has made harassment, racism, and hate an acceptable behavior.
Trump tweeted “Looking like Nick Sandman & Covington Catholic students were treated unfairly with early judgements proving out to be false – smeared by media. Not good, but making big comeback.”
The parents of Nick probably hired a PR Firm to hide their son’s racism, and it’s surprising to see the President of America support him.
Of course Trump claimed this to be false news. They were white, male, and Christians. That’s all it takes to take the fault away from them. If this was done by people of any other race, Trump would not have tweeted in support of them.