Jamie Lee Curtis Sorry for ‘Snap Judgement’ About Student’s Face-Off with Native American Elder

Jamie Lee Curtis Sorry for ‘Snap Judgement’ About Student’s Face-Off with Native American Elder

Jamie Lee Curtis has apologized for weighing in on a face-off between a high school student and a Native American tribal elder before hearing what both sides had to say about the incident.

There are two sides to every story,” the outspoken actress, 60, tweeted on Sunday, alongside a screenshot of Covington Catholic High School junior Nick Sandmann’s statement denying accusations he harassed and taunted a group of Native American activists, including Omaha Tribe elder Nathan Phillips, with his classmates.

“I made a snap judgement based on a photograph & I know better than to judge a book by its cover. I wasn’t there. I shouldn’t have commented,” she wrote, appearing to reference since-deleted tweets. “I’m glad there wasn’t violence. I hope theses [sic] two men can meet and find common ground as can WE ALL.”

Curtis went on to add in a separate tweet, “Maybe the POTUS could invite the young man in the video and the Native American war HERO to the WH for a talk and a (root) beer like @BarackObama did with the Boston PD officer and @HenryLouisGates.”

Her second tweet referred to the 2009 “beer summit” between Gates, an African-American professor at Harvard University, and a white police officer who arrested him after responding to a call regarding a potential burglary at the professor’s home, according to ABC News.

Curtis’ tweets were met with backlash, with many of the star’s followers writing that she was “right the first time.”

“No, this kid knew he was trying to provoke. It’s the old ‘I’m not touching you!’ That’s why he had that smirk on his face; you would not look like that if you were trying to diffuse a situation. It’s a weak excuse to try and avoid consequences he didn’t expect to face,” added another.

Another one of her followers simply wrote, “you have been bamboozled.”

RELATED: Catholic School Student In Viral Video with Native American Elder Condemns ‘Outright Lies’

In the Kentucky high school student’s statement, Sandmann said he wished to “correct misinformation and outright lies” about the incident.

Sandmann’s account comes after viral videos of the confrontation, in which Phillips, 63, there for the Indigenous Peoples March, can be seen playing a drum and chanting while standing in front of the smiling Sandmann. The teen — who was on a field trip to rally at the March for Life — was wearing a red Make America Great Again hat and peering down at Phillips. Behind them, a large group of kids, many of whom were also wearing MAGA apparel, can be seen laughing and making fun of Phillips’ chants.

“I never interacted with this protestor,” Sandmann wrote. “I did not speak to him. I did not make any hand gestures or other aggressive moves. To be honest, I was startled and confused as to why he had approached me.”

Sandmann went on to share that although in the video he looks like he is smirking at Philips, he explained his demeanor as “remaining motionless and calm” to help “diffuse the situation.”

“I was not intentionally making faces at the protestor,” he said. “I did smile at one point because I wanted him to know that I was not going to become angry, intimidated or be provoked into a larger confrontation.”

Sandmann also said he “did not witness or hear any students chant ‘build that wall’ or anything hateful or racist at any time. Assertions to the contrary are simply false.”

Phillips tells PEOPLE that Sandmann was blocking his way as he walked in prayer and song toward the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

“This Mr. Sandmann who claims I spotted him out, I was looking past him, he was the one who was making contact,” says Phillips. “And when I see people not moving, there he was not allowing me passage, demanding I go around him.”

He added: “I was standing there as a peacekeeper, I was afraid for my people also, the indigenous people.”

Sandmann described how the events began, when he and other classmates arrived at the Lincoln Memorial and saw four black men there.

A few minutes after the Covington students began their chant, Phillips and his group arrived, according to Sandmann, but the Native American elder described the scene differently to MSNBC.

It just needed that little spark and that mob would have descended on those four guys and ripped them apart — that’s what it looked like, that’s what it felt like,” Phillips told the outlet, explaining why he chose to walk up to the students.

The encounter between the black men described as Hebrew Israelites, the students and then with Phillips can be seen in this full-length video, which contains offensive language.

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Speaking about how he tried to keep peace during the confrontation, Phillips told MSNBC he started singing “prayers to god” and using a drum, which “is an instrument that we use to communicate to god.”

“When I started that drum beat, it was in my mind, god, look at us here now,” he told MSNBC’s Joy Reid on Sunday. “Look at my America here, look at my white, black brothers over here, they’re tearing at each other.”

He added as his voice filled with emotion, “We’re at a point where we can’t, you can’t stand by and watch this. If you’re an American and you see America getting torn apart, being burnt down…you got to do something. You got to stop it.”

The Diocese of Covington, which oversees Sandmann’s school, issued a statement condemning the actions of the students on Saturday.

“We extend our deepest apologies to Mr. Phillips,” the statement read. “This behavior is opposed to the Church’s teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person.”

“The matter is being investigated and we will take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion,” the statement continued.