VIRAL FALLOUT

Covington Catholic Students Claim Death Threats After D.C. Encounter

Two students released a video statement claiming their lives and the school’s safety had been threatened after their classmates’ encounter with a Native American leader went viral.

Two Covington Catholic High School students released a video statement Monday evening describing various alleged threats against them and the school after a video went viral of classmate Nicholas Sandmann appearing to have a stand-off with a Native American leader in D.C. this weekend.

“There have been many threats against our lives, against our parents. Some of these include that we should be locked in the school and it should be burned to the ground, the school being bombed, school shooting threats,” Sam Schroder, a senior at Covington Catholic, said in a video statement tweeted out by conservative high-school online personality CJ Pearson.

Schroder claimed the threats have escalated so much that police have been posted at the school and students are scared to attend class tomorrow.

“It’s really scary, I know a lot of people are scared to go to school tomorrow and won’t be attending because of what could happen,” he said. “There have been cops there ever since the incident and I think there will be a lot more tomorrow.”

Schroder and another senior, Grant Hillmann, both described how they were allegedly doxxed—or had their identities and contact information made public online.

“I, myself, wasn’t even present but I am very vocal about defending my school and my peers and I have been doxxed on three separate occasions,” Hillmann said. “This has lead to a tsunami of hateful messages and threats and everything above."

“A lot of people’s parents were also doxxed, their work was called. I mean, this could greatly affect their job. They could be fired,” Schroder added. “There are real consequences for these actions and it all spews from a 30-second clip taken out of a two-hour video out of context and people jumping to conclusions before the full story is released. Nobody did their research and it’s now showing.”

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Hillmann put the blame on the media, saying several outlets “blatantly lied” about the encounter and the coverage affected their community “greatly.”

Schroder and Hillmann’s classmate, Nick Sandmann, was featured in a viral clip that showed him wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat and seemingly smirking at a Native American elder who was beating a drum in front of him at a D.C. protest.

In a statement released Sunday, Sandmann claimed he was attempting to “diffuse [sic]” the situation by smiling and claimed the elder—identified as tribal leader and U.S. veteran Nathan Phillips—had “singled [him] out for a confrontation.”

Phillips, on the other hand, claimed he saw “hatred” in the eyes of the “beastly young men” who surrounded Sandmann and cheered him on during the encounter.

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