A diocese has apologised after videos emerged showing students from an all-male Catholic high school mocking Native Americans after a rally in Washington.
The Indigenous Peoples March on Friday coincided with the March for Life, which drew thousands of anti-abortion protesters, including a group from Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills, Kentucky.
Videos circulating online show one youth staring at and standing extremely close to Nathan Phillips, an elderly Native American man singing and playing a drum.
Other students, some wearing Covington clothing and many wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats and sweatshirts, surrounded them, laughing and jeering.
In a joint statement, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School apologised to Mr Phillips.
Officials said they are investigating and will take “appropriate action, up to and including expulsion”.
The statement said: “We extend our deepest apologies to Mr Phillips.
“This behaviour is opposed to the church’s teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person.”
According to the Indian Country Today website, Mr Phillips is an Omaha elder and Vietnam veteran who holds an annual ceremony honouring Native American veterans at Arlington National Cemetery.
In a video posted online, he wiped away tears as he said of the incident: “When I was there singing, I heard them saying ‘Build that wall, build that wall’.
“This is indigenous lands. We’re not supposed to have walls here. We never did.”
He said he wished the group of youngsters would instead put their energy into “making this country really great”.
State politician Ruth Buffalo, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, said she was saddened to see students showing disrespect to an elder who is also a US military veteran at what was supposed to be a celebration of all cultures.
“The behaviour shown in that video is just a snapshot of what indigenous people have faced and are continuing to face,” she said.
She added that she hopes it will lead to some kind of meeting with the students to provide education on issues facing Native Americans.
Congresswoman Deb Haaland, who had been at the rally earlier in the day, sharply criticised what she called a display of “blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance”.
She tweeted: “This Veteran put his life on the line for our country. Heartbreaking.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here