Statement of Nick Sandmann, Covington Catholic High School Junior, Regarding Incident at the Lincoln Memorial
I am providing this factual account of what happened on Friday
afternoon at the Lincoln Memorial to correct misinformation and outright
lies being spread about my family and me.
I am the student in the video who was confronted by the Native
American protestor. I arrived at the Lincoln Memorial at 4:30 p.m. I was
told to be there by 5:30 p.m., when our busses were due to leave
Washington for the trip back to Kentucky. We had been attending the
March for Life rally, and then had split up into small groups to do
sightseeing.
When we arrived, we noticed four African American protestors who were
also on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I am not sure what they were
protesting, and I did not interact with them. I did hear them direct
derogatory insults at our school group.
The protestors said hateful things. They called us “racists,”
“bigots,” “white crackers,” “faggots,” and “incest kids.” They also
taunted an African American student from my school by telling him that
we would “harvest his organs.” I have no idea what that insult means,
but it was startling to hear.
Because we were being loudly attacked and taunted in public, a
student in our group asked one of our teacher chaperones for permission
to begin our school spirit chants to counter the hateful things that
were being shouted at our group. The chants are commonly used at
sporting events. They are all positive in nature and sound like what you
would hear at any high school. Our chaperone gave us permission to use
our school chants. We would not have done that without obtaining
permission from the adults in charge of our group.
At no time did I hear any student chant anything other than the
school spirit chants. I did not witness or hear any students chant
“build that wall” or anything hateful or racist at any time. Assertions
to the contrary are simply false. Our chants were loud because we wanted
to drown out the hateful comments that were being shouted at us by the
protestors.
After a few minutes of chanting, the Native American protestors, who I
hadn’t previously noticed, approached our group. The Native American
protestors had drums and were accompanied by at least one person with a
camera.
The protestor everyone has seen in the video began playing his drum
as he waded into the crowd, which parted for him. I did not see anyone
try to block his path. He locked eyes with me and approached me, coming
within inches of my face. He played his drum the entire time he was in
my face.
I never interacted with this protestor. I did not speak to him. I did
not make any hand gestures or other aggressive moves. To be honest, I was startled and confused as to why he had approached me, coming within inches of my face. He played his drum the entire time he was in my face.
I never interacted with this protestor. I didn't not speak to him. I did not make any hand gestures or other aggressive moves. To be honest, I was startled and confused as to why he had
approached me. We had worried that a situation was getting out of
control where adults were attempting to provoke teenagers.
I believed that by remaining motionless and calm, I was helping to
diffuse the situation. I realized everyone had cameras and that perhaps a
group of adults was trying to provoke a group of teenagers into a
larger conflict. I said a silent prayer that the situation would not get
out of hand.
During the period of the drumming, a member of the protestor’s
entourage began yelling at a fellow student that we “stole our land” and
that we should “go back to Europe.” I heard one of my fellow students
begin to respond. I motioned to my classmate and tried to get him to
stop engaging with the protestor, as I was still in the mindset that we
needed to calm down tensions.
I never felt like I was blocking the Native American protestor. He
did not make any attempt to go around me. It was clear to me that he had
singled me out for a confrontation, although I am not sure why.
The
engagement ended when one of our teachers told me the busses had arrived
and it was time to go. I obeyed my teacher and simply walked to the
busses. At that moment, I thought I had diffused the situation by
remaining calm, and I was thankful nothing physical had occurred.
I never understood why either of the two groups of protestors were
engaging with us, or exactly what they were protesting at the Lincoln
Memorial. We were simply there to meet a bus, not become central players
in a media spectacle. This is the first time in my life I’ve ever
encountered any sort of public protest, let alone this kind of
confrontation or demonstration.
I was not intentionally making faces at the protestor. I did smile at
one point because I wanted him to know that I was not going to become
angry, intimidated or be provoked into a larger confrontation. I am a
faithful Christian and practicing Catholic, and I always try to live up
to the ideals my faith teaches me — to remain respectful of others, and
to take no action that would lead to conflict or violence.
I harbor no ill will for this person. I respect this person’s right
to protest and engage in free speech activities, and I support his
chanting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial any day of the week. I
believe he should rethink his tactics of invading the personal space of
others, but that is his choice to make.
I am being called every name in the book, including a racist, and I
will not stand for this mob-like character assassination of my family’s
name. My parents were not on the trip, and I strive to represent my
family in a respectful way in all public settings.
I have received physical and death threats via social media, as well
as hateful insults. One person threatened to harm me at school, and one
person claims to live in my neighborhood. My parents are receiving death
and professional threats because of the social media mob that has
formed over this issue.
I love my school, my teachers and my classmates. I work hard to
achieve good grades and to participate in several extracurricular
activities. I am mortified that so many people have come to believe
something that did not happen — that students from my school were
chanting or acting in a racist fashion toward African Americans or Native Americans. I did not do that, do not have
hateful feelings in my heart, and did not witness any of my classmates
doing that.
I cannot speak for everyone, only for myself. But I can tell you my
experience with Covington Catholic is that students are respectful of
all races and cultures. We also support everyone’s right to free speech.
I am not going to comment on the words or account of Mr. Phillips, as I
don’t know him and would not presume to know what is in his heart or mind. Nor am I going to comment
further on the other protestors, as I don’t know their hearts or minds,
either.
I have read that Mr. Phillips is a veteran of the United States
Marines. I thank him for his service and am grateful to anyone who puts
on the uniform to defend our nation. If anyone has earned the right to
speak freely, it is a U.S. Marine veteran.
I can only speak for myself and what I observed and felt at the time.
But I would caution everyone passing judgement based on a few seconds
of video to watch the longer video clips that are on the internet, as
they show a much different story than is being portrayed by people with
agendas.
I provided this account of events to the Diocese of Covington so they
may know exactly what happened, and I stand ready and willing to
cooperate with any investigation they are conducting.
###
This is the only statement that has been made by the Sandmann family. Any comments attributed to any member of the family that is not contained in this document are fabricated. The family will not be
answering individual media inquiries.
