The student body of a high school in North Dakota is under fire after a photo emerged depicting three students wearing Ku Klux Klan hoods at a boys hockey game.

Three Red River students don Ku Klux Klan hoods during a state playoff game — Twitter More

As first reported by the Grand Forks Herald, and followed upon by the Associated Press, three students at North Forks (N.D.) Red River High were captured on film wearing Ku Klux Klan hoods during a state semifinal boys hockey game against Fargo (N.D.) Davies High. The KKK hoods were apparently a misguided attempt to highlight the Red River fans’ whiteout at the University of North Dakota’s Ralph Englestad Arena.

Yet the actions were particularly caustic given the namesake of Davies High: Ronald Davies, a former U.S. judge based in Fargo who forced the governor of Arkansas to back down from his attempt to interfere with the famous integration of Little Rock schools.

Red River defeated Davies by a score of 2-0.

According to the Herald, Red River principal Kris Arason has already identified the teens who donned the hoods, reaching out to their parents and telling the press that “appropriate action is being taken.”

“We, as a school, are extremely disappointed with the behavior of these three students,” Arason said in a statement. “This behavior is not a representation of our school or student body.”

The photo in question first arose on social media thanks to University of North Dakota student Shane Schuster, who was attending the state semifinal game. Schuster snapped a photo of the teens and posted it on Twitter with the message, “I guess the red river highschoolers are racist?”

While no one has defended the unnamed teenagers who put on the inappropriate costumes, some Red River students did point out that the three students in question were all freshmen and allegedly removed the hoods within a minute as soon as other Red River students surrounding them castigated the freshmen for wearing them.

Naturally, that hardly makes the hoods’ emergence justifiable in any way. It hardly makes it less awful, on any level. In truth the only hope that can be taken from the incident is that the teens might learn something from their transgressions, which surely affected some in attendance and the thousands more who have read about it since much more than they intended.

Want more on the best stories in high school sports? Visit RivalsHigh or connect with Prep Rally on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

More news from the Yahoo! Sports Minute:

Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports:

• Patriots, Tom Brady agree to three-year, $27 million contract extension

• LeBron James retroactively wins Slam Dunk Contest

• Watch: Floyd Mayweather reveals Oregon Ducks are his bet

• Tiger Woods, Elin Nordegren spend day out with kids (photo)