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More Video Footage of MAGA Teens Mocking Native American Elder Shows the Teens Were Not "Defusing the Situation"

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ObserverArt1/21/2019 12:38:21 pm PST

A Covington Catholic chaperone weighs in…

Cincinnati .com - Covington Catholic chaperone: ‘There was nothing the chaperones could have done differently’

Many have asked: Where were the chaperones during the confrontation between Covington Catholic High School students, Native American marchers and Black Hebrew Israelites in Washington, D.C. on Friday?

It turns out there were at least five on the scene, one of the chaperones told The Enquirer on Monday.

That chaperone, Val Andreev, stands by how they handled the situation.

“There was nothing the chaperones could have done differently,” said Andreev, a Hebron-resident. “I’m very proud the way the boys handled the situation.”

Andreev and his 14-year-old son joined about 20 other chaperones and 240 students from Covington Catholic last week for the March for Life rally.

They made it back home Saturday without realizing they were involved in a national controversy, Andreev said.

The video of Covington Catholic High School students surrounding Native Americans in front of the Lincoln Memorial and chanting sparked a firestorm across the country.

They saw Covington Catholic junior Nick Sandmann, wearing a red Make America Great Again hat, standing inches from Omaha elder Nathan Phillips, who is chanting and playing a drum. Other Covington Catholic students surround them laughing and cheering.

Andreev said he didn’t see the start of the confrontation between Sandmann and the Omaha elder Nathan Phillips. He said he walked up to the scene in the middle of it.

The students were waiting for the buses to take them home when a group of about 150 of them started arguing back and forth with a group of Black Israelites. Videos show the Black Israelites yelling derogatory statements at people.

No one with the Covington Catholic group at the time saw it as a confrontation, Andreev said. They didn’t think anything of it until the next day when social media erupted with outrage.

“If you look at any videos, there was no confrontation,” Andreev told The Enquirer. “There was nothing to control. There was not any aggression.”

He said another chaperone made the Covington Catholic boys move further back from the Native American protestors. He didn’t hear any of the Covington Catholic students chant “Build that Wall.” He said chaperones gave permission for the students to chant “school spirit” slogans in response to some members of the Black Israelites yelling obscenities at them.

He backed Sandmann’s statement that Phillips and the Native Americans approached them. He believes the students were targeted by the Native American protestors because some were wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats.

“Our boys were set up for this event,” Andreev said. “It was staged.”