An Iowa teenager has been hit with a three-game suspension from his high school football team after the principal saw his expressions of school pride as racist.

The problem started with a social media photo of Blair Van Staalduine, a star student tight end at Marshalltown High School, but is now is being labeled a racist by his principal, his mother Cathy Van Staalduine told the NBC news affiliate, WHO-TV.

In the picture Van Stallduine is dressed in all white clothing and flashes a “W” sign with his fingers.

The outfit was part of Marshalltown High’s spirit week festivities, where students were asked to dress up in one of the school’s colors — red, white or blue. As a junior, Van Staalduine was asked to wear white.

“The actual school chose the colors that each grade would be wearing. Juniors wore white. So Blair, of course, being active in the school, dressed from head to toe in white,” Cathy Van Staalduine told the TV station. “Somebody took a picture of him doing a ‘W’ sign because they were wearing white. Blair says if they were wearing orange, they would have done an ‘O’.”.

Van Staalduine said the principal called her a racist when she attempted to discuss the suspension with him.

The family is now demanding the school lift the suspension and issue a public apology.

Video Credit: WHO-TV

Photo is a screen capture from WHO-TV.