The group of students from Covington Catholic High School who have been thrust in the spotlight over their interactions in a viral video with radical black activists and a Native American elder at the annual March for Life have been forced out of their homes, one parent says.
On the Todd Starnes Show Tuesday, Rick, the father of a student at Covington Catholic, told the Fox Radio show’s listeners that in addition to the school being shut down Tuesday, the students featured in the video have had to leave their homes out of fear.
“Those are the kids that are in real danger,” Rick said. You know I think I know the [Nick] Sandmann kid I believe moved out of his house. There have been people coming by taking pictures of his house, there’s been vandalism to some of these kids’ houses already.”
The politically motivated attacks on Covington Catholic students have been appalling to watch. All over a grossly mischaracterized story.
Very clear there is a double standard for conservatives. Wear a MAGA hat, and your side of the story doesn’t matter. Dangerous and wrong.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) January 22, 2019
Rick said that his son “luckily was not front and center on any of those videos” but added that “there really is a clear and present danger for these kids right now.”
“This left wing mob is chasing them down for being white Catholic kids wearing red hats,” he told Starnes.
Covington Catholic High School canceled class Tuesday due to numerous threats against the school, including shooting and arson threats.
But while the school is currently closed, and will likely see a heavy police presence when it opens, Rick says that the students are just as much in danger outside the school as they are within it.
“There are people still actively on Twitter right now trying to identify kids in various photos,” he said. “And I know that for a fact just from an hour ago I was involved in somebody sent me a text where they’re trying to identify some kids.”
Rick pointedly called out comedian Kathy Griffin, who had called for the students in the video to be publicly identified, but the Covington Catholic parent was especially disappointed with the response from the Diocese of Covington and its longtime bishop, Roger Foys.
“The reaction of the diocese if you ask people in the Covington Catholic community,” Rick said, “that’s the biggest disappointment that we have is that they immediately as quickly as they could throw him under the bus with this statement denouncing them and finding them guilty without probably asking any questions of anybody because the kids were still asleep by then.”
Foys had issued a statement in conjunction with the high school condemning the boys actions over the weekend, but has yet to walk back the statement as more information has come to light.
The Diocese of Covington’s official website has been mostly taken down and now only displays a brief statement published Tuesday stating that the diocesan offices and the high school were closed due to threats of violence and the diocese would not comment further until a third party investigation of the incident had been completed.
“We’ve got an excellent administration and teachers and a principal and I think they’ve been muzzled a bit by the diocese,” Rick said. “It’s a political correctness measure and I don’t think they want to offend anybody but they’ve given zero support to these kids.”