Covington Catholic faces backlash after tense exchange with indigenous marchers

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

It's a bad situation. Obviously, there isn't excusing it away. I'm not going to make any attempt at doing that.

 

Clearly the respect owed to the individuals associated with the Indigenous People protest that was also taking place in Washington DC was not given by that group of Covington Catholic students. Clearly there is an enormous breakdown in understanding among the students at Covington Catholic regarding the plight of Native Americans and exactly how disrespectful that was.

 

I hope that can be very, very quickly addressed and that this situation will bring about some REAL introspection on behalf of the school, the students, and the parents at Cov Cath about their Christian mission and exactly what that does entail.

 

With that said, I also truly hope - and believe - that this is the product of the actions of few affecting many, and a William Golding-esque mob mentality taking over in some of the worst ways. I know, personally, that there are many many good students, families, teachers, and administrators involved at Covington Catholic. I know that the school has many many MANY successes in their Christian outreach, including thousands of hours of community volunteering on an annual basis, and student groups like the Joseph of Armithea society that helps offer respectful burial services and pallbearers for deceased northern Kentucky indigents, who would otherwise be simply buried in an unmarked grave in a by a crew of county construction workers. I know there are good things happening at the school, and many of them.

 

Unfortunately, now there is a band of thirty or forty poorly-supervised 16-18 year olds showing off their massive ignorance and stupidity in those videos - and that is what I see - and those actions are literally and completely overshadowing all of the thousands of hours of community outreach and Christian service done by students at the school.

 

One more enormous lesson to be learned here is how much proper supervision and chaperoning was lacking. I kept waiting for a parent or teacher to start grabbing those kids and throwing them back in another direction. I didn't even see a single one present. Huge problem as well.

[HammerTime]

I think what needs to be remembered here is that these kids are kids. Justification for their behavior, no. But kids do dumb things.

Racism doesn’t happen on accident.

[theguru]

This is from Ryan Ernst's Facebook Page (shared with permission). In the past Ryan was the lead high school sports writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer:

 

During my time covering high school sports in Northern Kentucky, I met some fantastic people affiliated with Covington Catholic -- alums, coaches, administrators, students.

 

Still, I'd often find myself dumbfounded with some aspects of the school. The student section would unleash a borderline -- or overtly over-the-line -- offensive/elitist chant and the parents would smile and point and clap like their boys over there in the stands were curing cancer. "This school has a serious culture problem," I remember thinking quite often.

 

I remember talking to one CovCath dad who referred to driving his son to school as "dropping him and his friends off at the country club."

 

That rings pretty true today in light of some extremely disturbing footage.

[Guest]

It's a bad situation. Obviously, there isn't excusing it away. I'm not going to make any attempt at doing that.

 

Clearly the respect owed to the individuals associated with the Indigenous People protest that was also taking place in Washington DC was not given by that group of Covington Catholic students. Clearly there is an enormous breakdown in understanding among the students at Covington Catholic regarding the plight of Native Americans and exactly how disrespectful that was.

 

I hope that can be very, very quickly addressed and that this situation will bring about some REAL introspection on behalf of the school, the students, and the parents at Cov Cath about their Christian mission and exactly what that does entail.

 

With that said, I also truly hope - and believe - that this is the product of the actions of few affecting many, and a William Golding-esque mob mentality taking over in some of the worst ways. I know, personally, that there are many many good students, families, teachers, and administrators involved at Covington Catholic. I know that the school has many many MANY successes in their Christian outreach, including thousands of hours of community volunteering on an annual basis, and student groups like the Joseph of Armithea society that helps offer respectful burial services and pallbearers for deceased northern Kentucky indigents, who would otherwise be simply buried in an unmarked grave in a by a crew of county construction workers. I know there are good things happening at the school, and many of them.

 

Unfortunately, now there is a band of thirty or forty poorly-supervised 16-18 year olds showing off their massive ignorance and stupidity in those videos - and that is what I see - and those actions are literally and completely overshadowing all of the thousands of hours of community outreach and Christian service done by students at the school.

 

One more enormous lesson to be learned here is how much proper supervision and chaperoning was lacking. I kept waiting for a parent or teacher to start grabbing those kids and throwing them back in another direction. I didn't even see a single one present. Huge problem as well.

 

Yes, someone really let those boys down by not trying to shut this down. They are kids they can get caught up really fast. Whoever was in charge dropped the ball.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

I have to tell you after seeing that I would not send my child Cov Cath. Chaperones were actually there from the report I saw. Bad look for Cov Cath, bad look for Catholic Schools, bad look for for NKY. Thanks Cov Cath.

 

I can honestly say that I've not seen any videos that included chaperones even present, much less participating along with the students. I'm not saying that there's no way that that happened, I certainly hope it didn't, but of all the videos that I came across, there was absolutely no participation by any chaperons or supervisors. I looked multiple times.

 

What a lot of people don't understand is that there are literally in the neighborhood of 500,000 people at that rally, and trying to look at a cell phone video and pick out chaperones from one specific group is not really something that can be easily accomplished, unless those chaperones are wearing Covington Catholic apparel, and I can tell you after looking through every one of the videos I came across specifically for that, I saw mill adults there wearing Covington Catholic apparel or even participating in the chanting.

 

I'm not trying to excuse anything away there, but just saying that I looked for any actions - at all, good or bad - by school chaperones, and from what I saw, there were no chaperones to be found at all.

[Guest]

I can honestly say that I've not seen any videos that included chaperones even present, much less participating along with the students. I'm not saying that there's no way that that happened, I certainly hope it didn't, but of all the videos that I came across, there was absolutely no participation by any chaperons or supervisors. I looked multiple times.

 

What a lot of people don't understand is that there are literally in the neighborhood of 500,000 people at that rally, and trying to look at a cell phone video and pick out chaperones from one specific group is not really something that can be easily accomplished, unless those chaperones are wearing Covington Catholic apparel, and I can tell you after looking through every one of the videos I came across specifically for that, I saw mill adults there wearing Covington Catholic apparel or even participating in the chanting.

 

I'm not trying to excuse anything away there, but just saying that I looked for any actions - at all, good or bad - by school chaperones, and from what I saw, there were no chaperones to be found at all.

 

Yeah I have no idea if chaperones were there, just what the media outlet said. Should teens be allowed to just roam a major city though? I have no idea I don’t have kids that age. Seems fine but in a political charged environment? Just a bad situation gone worse. Terrible for the school. It will blow over, no one died. Lesson learned.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Yeah I have no idea if chaperones were there, just what the media outlet said. Should teens be allowed to just roam a major city though? I have no idea I don’t have kids that age. Seems fine but in a political charged environment? Just a bad situation gone worse. Terrible for the school. It will blow over, no one died. Lesson learned.

 

Absolutely not.

[ThrillVille Cardinal51]

I’m seeing some on social media defending the kid, saying he was approached yada yada he was standing there. Whatever.

 

1. He shouldn’t have put himself in a confrontational situation when you are marching for life.

 

2. Someone should have been level headed enough to pull them out of the situation.

 

3. Where the heck we’re the babysitters. They needed one.

 

4. Optics. They look bad and that’s all I’ll say about it.

 

5. Don’t tell me that kid wasn’t at the very least coming from a “I’m better than you” mentality. It’s written all over his smug face.

 

6. The administrators are hiding. The bishop is being a coward.

 

 

I’m so embarrassed.

[rjs4470]

This is from Ryan Ernst's Facebook Page (shared with permission). In the past Ryan was the lead high school sports writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer:

 

During my time covering high school sports in Northern Kentucky, I met some fantastic people affiliated with Covington Catholic -- alums, coaches, administrators, students.

 

Still, I'd often find myself dumbfounded with some aspects of the school. The student section would unleash a borderline -- or overtly over-the-line -- offensive/elitist chant and the parents would smile and point and clap like their boys over there in the stands were curing cancer. "This school has a serious culture problem," I remember thinking quite often.

 

I remember talking to one CovCath dad who referred to driving his son to school as "dropping him and his friends off at the country club."

 

That rings pretty true today in light of some extremely disturbing footage.

 

I’ve often felt the same way about the “Crazies” and it’s almost shocking to me how they universally not only get free passes for some of the stuff they say and do, but also get commended for being the “best” student section around. Some of the stuff you see and hear at games is even worse and more mean spirited than what happened in DC.

[Guest]

I’m seeing some on social media defending the kid, saying he was approached yada yada he was standing there. Whatever.

 

1. He shouldn’t have put himself in a confrontational situation when you are marching for life.

 

2. Someone should have been level headed enough to pull them out of the situation.

 

3. Where the heck we’re the babysitters. They needed one.

 

4. Optics. They look bad and that’s all I’ll say about it.

 

5. Don’t tell me that kid wasn’t at the very least coming from a “I’m better than you” mentality. It’s written all over his smug face.

 

6. The administrators are hiding. The bishop is being a coward.

 

 

I’m so embarrassed.

 

It sucks. It’s kids making a mistake. It is a horrible representation of the school. I think everyone I know that went to Cov Cath is a classy person and would never condone this behavior. It’s one of those wrong place wrong time and not proper supervision deals.

[theguru]

I’ve often felt the same way about the “Crazies” and it’s almost shocking to me how they universally not only get free passes for some of the stuff they say and do, but also get commended for being the “best” student section around. Some of the stuff you see and hear at games is even worse and more mean spirited than what happened in DC.

 

I had a similar conversation with someone earlier today and when I saw Ryan's post I thought it was germane to the incident so I shared it.

[TheDeuce]

I’ve read that the CCH students were actually taunting a group of African American protesters, and the Native American gentleman stepped in to diffuse the situation. The song he was singing is designed to reduce he toxicity of man.

 

Great group they had there.

[theguru]

I’ve read that the CCH students were actually taunting a group of African American protesters, and the Native American gentleman stepped in to diffuse the situation. The song he was singing is designed to reduce he toxicity of man.

 

Great group they had there.

 

If that turns out to be true that is way worse.

[Cfuddy]

A little different angle...

 

Michael Aytes - This is a video of what really happened in... | Facebook

[TheDeuce]

A little different angle...

 

Michael Aytes - This is a video of what really happened in... | Facebook

 

That corroborates what I just posted...