The whole saga is an example of the Donald Trump–era overcorrection. The president has no use for facts; he simply says whatever he wants, and his followers repeat it uncritically. That has made it even more important for journalists to get the facts right, and to acknowledge when they get them wrong, to prove that they abide by facts rather than sentiment. The president’s conscious attempts to delegitimize the media make this task even more difficult. Much of the mainstream media, meanwhile, is working tirelessly to win back the trust of Trump’s followers, whether by conceding the president’s framing, offering endless watercolored portraits of Trump supporters in Midwest diners, or making other displays of sympathy.

Video of the incident posted by the American Indian outlet Indian Country Today shows the beginning of the confrontation. Far from being “calm and restrained” in response to the taunts of the five Black Hebrew Israelites, the students are shown responding with loud chants, gestures, and shouts of their own, as though facing off against a rival team at a sporting event, escalating the confrontation. When the American Indian activist Nathan Phillips walks between the groups with his drum, many of the students respond by performing the “tomahawk chop” gesture, laughing, or doing a mocking imitation of his singing. Not all of the children are being disrespectful; others are confused about how to react, and say so out loud.

The Black Hebrew Israelite faction that was present in front of the Lincoln Memorial does not reflect most of the loose grouping of congregations, which can be roughly described as synthesizing Jewish and Christian ideas and practices, but it is a frequent bother for D.C. residents. Its members stand on crowded street corners with bullhorns and yell vile things, including racist, sexist, and homophobic slurs, at anyone who passes by. D.C. residents do not respond to these provocations with confrontation. They ignore them. They do not engage in chants or taunts of their own in an attempt to display their dominance. They don’t engage in their own taunts of people who happen to be nearby.

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The incident reflects most poorly not on the children, but on their adult chaperones. Much of the initial reaction to the children’s behavior—calls for doxing, violence, or permanent shunning—was indeed over the top. The school closed Tuesday for security reasons; officials said the institution was receiving death threats. That is an absurd overreaction.

No children deserve to be thrown away like refuse because they make a mistake, even a cruel one. Part of being a child is not understanding how your actions affect others, and part of growing up is learning to understand that.

The real issue raised by the video is the messages these kids are being sent by adults and authority figures about how to treat people, especially those who are different from them. And in both cases, the escalation with the Black Hebrew Israelite faction and the jeering of Phillips, what is most clear is that in this regard, the adults in their life have failed them.