Before I begin I want to make something very clear. I am in no way condoning, taunting, or harassing people of any background, religion, or race. All people deserve to be treated with respect, even if they do not share my morals.

On Friday, January 18, the March For Life took place in Washington D.C. The total amount of people who attended this event is estimated to be somewhere in between 200,000 and 300,000. Among the massive crowds was a group of high school students from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky. Towards the end of their trip, many of the students went to the Lincoln Memorial. There, as the world now knows, a few short videos were taken of 16-year-old, Nick Sandmann, appearing to be blocking and harassing a Native American, Nathan Phillips, while other students in the background were chanting and yelling. The video sparked a widespread backlash against Sandmann, and rightfully so.

Truthfully, when I first saw the video I was very angry. As a Republican and a former private school kid, I thought, “Great. This idiot kid who is clearly in the wrong has now made things way worse than they already are for young Republicans.” The video made me frustrated and disappointed because it would give the mainstream media another chance to make inaccurate generalizations about the Republican Party and the Catholic community.

Days later, my dad asked me if I had seen the whole video and Sandmann’s response. The “new” video was taken by someone outside of the circle where the encounter between Phillips and Sandmann took place. The video, or should I say the whole video, shows the students originally being harassed by a group called the Black Hebrew Israelites, who were shouting at the students, calling them “crackers” and “pompous bastards” and telling the group to “go back to Europe.” The group then asked permission to chant their school spirit song, which they were allowed to and did.

Then Nathan Phillips entered the circle and reportedly singled out Nick Sandmann. And here begins the video we have all seen of the two standing face to face with Sandmann smirking.

As I stated before, the first version of the video looks pretty bad for Republicans who are constantly called some awful term like racist, homophobe, or Nazi. The video clip that spread like wildfire around the internet shows a stupid teenage boy being arrogant and disrespectful. There is simply no way of getting around that. But does that make it okay to send this boy death threats, to threaten to hurt him and his family, to call him awful horrible names? Does it make it okay for celebrities like Kathy Griffin to say things like “I want NAMES. Shame them. If you think these f—ers wouldn’t dox you in a heartbeat, think again.”

No. This 16-year-old kid has half the United States incensed at him for an edited video clip.

This kid is a high school junior, which means he is soon going to start applying for college. I can guarantee that there will be at least a few schools who turn him down because of this edited video clip. This kid will have to suffer serious effects due to attacks from people, some of whom are prominent, who see only the side they want to see. This kid is going to suffer. He is scared for himself and his family and that is not something a kid should have to go through.