Call out Culture and helping students

There has been a lot of anger and outrage going on regarding the high school students from Kentucky and a group of people at the Indigenous people’s rally. I’ve watched the long videos, ( I’ve read the statements and seen the interviews from Mr. Phillips. As someone who has been in Catholic Education for 10 years, and worked with youth in Catholic Parishes for 5 years before that, I’ve spent a lot of time working with kids. I’ve taken students to the National March for Life at least 6 times (might be seven, I lose track), so I understand what that event is like. I understand the time you have to wait for busses, and I understand the other protests that happen. There are always counter protests at the March for Life. One year, my students and myself watched a group of protestors be arrested for blocking the path of the march. After the incident had cleared up a little, I talked to my students about walking away and not engaging in the insults, the derogatory terms, and even the physical intimidation (When they spit at us, which was gross!), and we were a few rows back from the counter protest. I wish they didn’t have to see something like that, but that was the reality that year.

With over 600,000 people at the march, getting out of downtown DC is crazy, and it is very common to try and find a place that is easy for a bus to get to and out of the way of the majority of crowds. The Lincoln Memorial would fit this requirement, and would allow students who may have never gone to DC before to see the other memorials in that area before getting on the bus. I could see why the adult leaders of the trip chose that location. I’d hope, if they knew there was another march going on there they would have chosen somewhere else, so as to not interrupt.

I have many questions about this entire situation.

1. Why, when the adult leaders heard those disgusting things being yelled at the students, did they not move somewhere else? I would hope they could have called the leader and said they were going to wait on a different part of the memorial, to remove the students from the situation. Maybe there were just too many students for that to be practical.

2. Why is no one outraged at the African American protestors? Be mad at the students if you want, but if you’re going to condemn the student behavior, shouldn’t you condemn the equally (or more) terrible behavior of the African American protestors? I haven’t seen any of that, particularly from the media.

3. I believe this truly could have been a teachable moment. Why didn’t the people from the Indigenous People’s rally explain to the students they were in the middle of an event? (Maybe they did, I have no idea). Why didn’t Mr. Phillips first try and explain what he was singing, maybe even teach a few of the students closest to him? This would have been an opportunity for a real moment of encounter and shared culture. It seems clear the students really had no idea what was going on, as the singing was in a language they didn’t understand, and if they have had limited contact with Native American ritual, likely weren’t sure what to do. I did hear one of the people from the Indigenous People rally swear and insult one for the high school students, and the student’s friend try and get him to not engage with the adult. The teacher in me wishes the people from the Indigenous People’s rally had explained to the students what they were hearing, how important it is to the culture and what it means. If this student is a person of faith as he says, I might speculate that he would have appreciated the opportunity to even join in the prayer, had he known the most respectful way to do that. I know, being in a situation where I’m not sure what is going on around me, I might have reacted in exactly the same way, by standing still, so as not to appear rude, and smiling in what I thought was encouragement. I do know, as an educator, I wish he had gone about teaching the students about peace and prayer a different, more effective way, but as Mr. Phillips is not a teacher, he likely wouldn’t have known the best way to go about it.

4. Why do us adults not always set students up to be their best selves? Keeping them in a volatile situation (even if they didn’t cause it) can only get worse from there. Why didn’t an adult step up to the student in the video and either stand with him or pull him away somewhere else? Why didn’t Mr. Phillips go on by when it was clear the student wasn’t going to react? None of the videos I saw (the early, immediate videos and the longer ones of the entire encounter) show Mr. Phillips try and move from the student. Maybe he felt he didn’t have room to get around him with so many students waiting for a bus. Why didn't an adult ask Mr. Phillips to explain what he was doing to the students and offered to help him explain it to the students?

The saddest part of all of this, for me, is the fast reaction for the internet to rush to judgement, name calling and death threats (according to the statement of the student, at any rate). This is the real problem with our society, I think. Rarely do we take time to actually listen and gather all sides of the information. We love to call out people we disagree with, before taking time to consider if we have all the facts, or what these words will mean to the person who will read them. No where are we willing to offer compassion. This makes me sad.

I read an article today, an opinion piece in the New York times- called The Cruelty of Call Out Culture. (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/opinion/call-out-social-justice.html) I think this addresses this situation so well, I hope you check it out. Until we are willing to choose compassion first and stop name calling, can we truly have a ‘culture of encounter’. This doesn’t mean there are no consequences for bad behavior, but that we always try and include compassion with those consequences.

I'm not saying the students are innocent of all wrongs. I also freely admit to my own biases, working with high school males, and the very unique things that come from a single gender male school, that most without that experience simply don't understand. That experience is likely coloring how I see the situations in the 9 minute video. I know I didn't understand this particular culture before I started working in that environment. (Seriously, this need to yell things is truth. I had students have a mini cheer session in the middle of a 3 day serious retreat once).

Other links: This story has the longer versions of the videos I watched (especially the 9 minute video).. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/01/20/covington-catholic-incident-indigenous-peoples-march-longer-video/2630930002/

This is the statement of the student who is in front of Mr. Phillips: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/20/covington-catholic-student-video-issues-statement-his-side-story/2634008002/