An Indiana school district has apologized after an autistic fifth-grader was given a “most annoying male” award by his school, according to the Time of Northwest Indiana.

Gary Community School Corp. emergency manager Peter Morikis said in a statement Monday that he met with the student’s family and has taken disciplinary action against the school faculty involved.

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"The Gary Community School Corporation does not condone this type of behavior and will continue to put the safety and well-being of our students first," Morikis said in a prepared statement to the Times. "We extend our deepest apologies to the impacted student, the family and anyone else who take offense to this unfortunate occurrence."

Rick Castejon of Gary, Ind., told the newspaper he was present at a fifth-grade awards luncheon for Bailly Preparatory Academy, his son’s school, and said his son was given the award in front of other parents, students and the school’s principal.

“We were blindsided. We just weren’t expecting it,” Castejon told the Times. "As a principal or teacher, you should never let this happen to any student."

Castejon said he left the trophy, inscribed “BAILEY PREPARATORY ACADEMY 2018-2019 MOST ANNOYING MALE,” at the Golden Corral restaurant where the ceremony took place, but his son’s teacher approached him and reminded him not to forget it. Castejon told the paper the teacher appeared to be trying to play off the award as a joke.

He said his son’s teachers regularly called him with behavioral concerns relating to his son and wondered whether the calls contributed to the award.

“They called me all the time if he didn’t want to work, would cry or would have a breakdown,” Castejon told the paper. “A special needs education teacher should know how to handle these things.”

The district did not comment on whether anyone would be fired in relation to the incident, and did not identify the teacher involved.