Right, but that seems completely in keeping with his version of events. They announce this is coming without much consideration and then later he finds himself under scathing attack from HN, reacts badly and leaves some defensive comments, then takes a couple days to think about it, realizes he was wrong, writes a very good apology email.
That all makes sense, this isn’t the end of the world, can we just move on, please?
But the parent is indeed correct in implying that the comments he did make were anything but receptive or conciliatory.