School officials are investigating reports that three North Dakota students resembled Ku Klux Klan members after wearing white hoods to cover their faces at a high school hockey game.
Shane Schuster, 19, who was sitting across from the trio on Friday, took a photo of them with their hoods on and posted it on Twitter.
"I thought, 'Are those KKK hoods?' I couldn't believe it. I was shocked," Schuster told The Associated Press.
The students removed their hoods in the second period, about 10 to 20 minutes after Shuster said he first noticed them wearing them.
During the hockey game, many other students were dressed all in white, and some painted their faces white, in what is referred to as a "whiteout" — a hockey tradition that started 25 years ago in which fans showed their support for their teams by dressing in the same color.
After the Twitter photo spread in the school community, Mark Rerick, athletic director for Grand Forks Public Schools, addressed the situation.
"After confirming the incident, we notified the administrators at Red River High School who immediately began their investigation," Rerick said in a statement emailed to the AP. "To the best of my knowledge, the students have been identified by the Red River administrators who are continuing their investigation."
Schuster said Red River's principal contacted him on Saturday night requesting additional photos from the game, but he had only one.
Red River defeated Fargo's Davies High School, which is named in honor of Ronald Davies, a former federal judge from Fargo whose 1957 rulings integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., a pivotal event in the civil rights movement.
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