Nick Sandmann ‘not sorry’ over stand-off with Native American Nathan Phillips

The teen filmed in a stand-off with a Native American refuses to apologise but says he wishes he’d simply walked away | WATCH

The teen filmed in a stand-off with a Native American in Washington has refused to apologise for his actions but says he wishes he had walked away from the encounter.

Nick Sandmann, who was filmed standing silently smiling as Omaha elder Nathan Phillips banged a drum and sang just inches away, told NBC: “I had every right,” as he defended his behaviour.

The video of the racially charged confrontation went viral over the weekend, bringing condemnation down on Mr Sandmann and his fellow school pupils who were also filmed apparently taunting the 64-year-old man.

But Mr Sandmann insisted he was not being “disrespectful.”

“As far as standing there I had every right to,” he said on the Today show. “My position is that I was not disrespectful to Mr. Phillips I’d like to talk to him.

“I mean, in hindsight I wished we could have walked away and avoided the whole thing, but I can’t say that I’m sorry for listening to him and standing there.”

Nick Sandmann on encounter with Nathan Phillips: ‘I wish I would've walked away’ https://t.co/EfDkCgs4CT

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 23, 2019

Mr Sandmann and his fellow pupils from the Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky, who were taking part in an anti-abortion rally at the Lincoln Memorial, were instantly condemned as racist when the video of the encounter first went viral. One tweet called them “Nazis”.

Mr Phillips, who was taking part in an Indigenous Peoples’ March said afterward he felt scared during the encounter.

Further videos, however, showed a more complex picture, introducing a third party, the Black Hebrew Israelites, who were shown shouting abuse at both the Native Americans and the school pupils.

Mr Sandmann, who claims he and his fellow pupils were given permission by a teacher to counter the Hebrew Israelites’ abuse with their school chant, insists they didn’t instigate a confrontation.

“We’re a Catholic school. And [racism] is not tolerated. They don’t tolerate racism. And none of my classmates are racist people,” he said.

He said the Hebrew Israelites were shouting homophobic slurs at him and his classmates. “I heard them call us incest kids. Bigots.

“I definitely felt threatened. They were a group of adults, and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next.”

Mr Sandmann said when Mr Phillips walked toward his group banging his drum, he wasn’t sure if the elderly man was coming to join the schoolboys. He said if the elder had walked past him, he would not have stood in his way, but when Mr Phillips stopped in front of him, he smiled at him to avoid escalating a potentially aggressive situation.

“I’m willing to stand there as long as you have this drum in my face,” Mr Sandmann said. “People have judged me based off one expression, which I wasn’t smirking. They’ve gone from there to labelling me as a racist person, someone who’s disrespectful of adults. They’ve had to assume so much to get there without doing anything to get the other perspective.”

Mr Sandmann had already defended his actions in a three-page statement released on Sunday. “When we arrived, we noticed four African-American protesters who were also on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial,” he said in the statement published by local news outlet WKRC. “I did hear them direct derogatory insults at our school group … They called us ‘racists,’ ‘bigots,’ ‘white crackers,’ ‘faggots,’ and ‘incest ‘kids.’”

Mr Phillips, who still insists the boys were mocking his prayer song, said Mr Sandmann should apologise, but has offered to meet the school boys and have a “dialogue about cultural appropriation, racism, and the importance of listening to and respecting diverse cultures,” according to a news release from the Indigenous Peoples Movement.

The White House also weighed in on the controversy, with Donald Trump blaming “Fake News” and press secretary Sarah Sanders accusing the media and “other leaders” of taking joy “in the destruction of young kids.”

“These are kids. Let’s not forget these are 15, 16-year-old kids that were put in a very tough position and actually handled it very well,” Ms Sanders told Fox & Friends