It may not being referring to an error, since in addition to indicating error (sic) can also mean,"....to guard against a supposition of misquotation." In that sense it would indicate an exact quote of the young man's words and nothing more.
My wife reminded me that our local newspaper uses (sic) in its "Letter to the Editor" column to indicate exact quotes, as do other newspapers in the area.
The quote was . . . in quotes, so there was no further need to indicate that it was a verbatim!!