Sunny Hostin Wonders Where the Chaperones Were During Students’ Confrontation with Native American Man

As more videos have been released concerning an apparent confrontation between Kentucky Catholic schoolboys and a D.C.-based Native American man, the hosts of ABC’s “The View” have weighed in. And perhaps no one has shared her thoughts more passionately than Sunny Hostin.

Footage went viral over the weekend of a group of white teenage boys wearing “Make America Great Again” hats as they appeared to be laughing and chanting as Nathan Phillips beat his drum in front of smiling Covington Catholic High School junior Nick Sandmann at the Lincoln Memorial. Since then, a video taken earlier surfaced showing Black Hebrew Israelites engaging with the students.

All the groups were at the memorial in the nation’s capital for respective rallies, including the March for Life and the Indigenous Peoples March.

In response to the controversy that ensued, which led to the shutdown of campus Tuesday, Hostin placed blame on the teachers who accompanied the students.

“As a practicing Catholic, I just kept on coming back to the same point,” Hostin says on “The View” Jan. 22. “Where were the chaperones? Where were the adults? I thought it was such a teachable moment for everyone there. These were kids. These were 16-year-old kids and I kept thinking you’ve got kids coming from another place, Kentucky. They don’t know D.C.

“You’ve got the Black Israelites really taunting them. They should have been taught, ‘What would Jesus do?’ That’s what Catholics are taught,” she went on. “A chaperone should have said, ‘Don’t engage, don’t engage, move along.’ Instead, the chaperones told them to start this chant.”

As she described what went on, she later acknowledged Sandmann’s statement in which he said he and his fellow students were called “racists” and ”white crackers” by the religious group and that a teacher gave them permission to start chanting “to counter the hateful things that were being shouted at our group.”

“Instead of teaching him as an adult maybe teach him some responsibility, there’s still no teachable moment,” Hostin concluded. “So where are the adults in this teaching, teaching, teaching? No one is there. No one is there. I was just disgusted by the entire thing.”

https://youtu.be/tNYGM9l611E?t=176

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top