MINNEAPOLIS—A student actor’s “insensitive” posting of a photo showing fellow cast members in costumes —Ku Klux Klan garb —prompted the cancellation of a play scheduled for this weekend that was being put on by students at a Minnesota high school, the principal said Monday in an email to students and parents.

Making the rounds over the weekend on social media was an image shot from a row or two back showing the stage with New Prague High School students in the white robes and hoods favoured by the KKK, whose long-fought and violent campaign against blacks in the United States has come to symbolize racism in the country. New Prague is about 72 kilometres south of Minneapolis.

“I think you’re gonna want to come to the spring play” were the words on the bottom of the photo, referring to the production scheduled for staging Friday and Saturday nights.

“On Friday afternoon, (an) NPHS student involved in the play posted a captioned photo on social media of some fellow cast members in KKK costumes that are used in the final scene of the play to depict an evil force” in the play titled The Foreigner, said the email signed by Principal Lonnie Seifert and Assistant Principal Tom Wetschka.

“Administration was made aware of the posting, and the insensitive nature of this post,” the email continued.

The email did not specify what it was about the social media posting that made school officials deem it insensitive.

In an interview Monday afternoon, Seifert said the posting’s lack of context made the photo and the accompanying words troubling.

While the KKK members depicted in the play are portrayed as ignorant and closed-minded villains who lose out in the end, the principal said “that message was lost with the post.”

He said staff met with students who were offended and understand there are “students and adults who are uncomfortable with that part of history.” Seifert said there are 12 black students among the 1,300 or so attending his school.

The principal’s email explained that “as we reviewed the social media post and conducted meetings with our theatre director and concerned community members, we feel it is in the best interest of New Prague Area Schools to not present the show this weekend.”

The principal and his assistant said in the email that the dust-up over the posting will be followed up by discussions among students, staff and others “as we continue to work at embracing a culture of acceptance and respect for all students” within the school district.

The Foreigner is a two-act comedy by American playwright Larry Shue that is set in a fishing lodge in rural Tilghman County, Ga., where two Englishmen arrive as guests. One of them soon discovers scandals among some of the residents of the lodge.