Catholic School Boys Deemed Innocent after Viral Rally Video

America is having trouble deciding what is an acceptable form of Freed Speech.

In Washington D.C. on 18 January 2019, a group of Covington Catholic School boys were harassed for wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ hats. The boys were there to rally peacefully at a March for Life event, but unfortunately their day did not end as well as they hoped.

The boys were first approached by a Black Israelite group who chanted obscene comments such as ‘incest babies,’ ‘future school shooters,’ and ‘crackers.’ After their harassment, Nathan Phillips, a Native American participant of the Indigenous March, came up to Nick Sandmann, a Covington student, and chanted an indigenous song at him. Nathan Phillips claims he heard the boys chant ‘Build the Wall’ and that is why he approached him.

As a response to these accusations, on 13 February 2019, the Covington Catholic school boys were proved blameless. The Bishop of Covington held an investigation to prove they did not start the tiff. Nathan Phillips claimed that the boys chanted “Build that wall,” but after interviewing the twenty chaperones and watching the videos, it was allegedly false.  

The Catholic school boys were not only being harassed by the men but by celebrities as well. Alyssa Milano made the statement that the MAGA hat is the new ‘white hood hat’ and that she was ‘Sorry not Sorry’ for speaking her mind about the situation.

Along with Alyssa Milano, more celebrities, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, Jim Carrey, and Kathy Griffin are being sued for libel by Nick Sandmann. Nick’s attorney is the famed lawyer L. Lin Wood, who defended JonBenet Ramsey.

Nick Sandmann is also suing The Washington Post for 250 million dollars as of 19 February 2019. He claims that they destroyed his image. The accusation is that the Post is making him look racist, as he is a white male wearing the “Make America Great Again” hat.

Libel cases are made to defend a person’s image. The person’s image would have allegedly been destroyed through video, posts, words or pictures. These cases are especially hard to prosecute, and Nick’s case might be tricky.