A college recruiter was fired after high school students in Oklahoma City said he lined them up according to the color of their skin and then by the texture of their hair.

Harding Charter Preparatory high school student Korey Todd told KFOR-TV that during the 24 February assembly, the recruiter from Oklahoma Christian University “barely talked about the school itself”.

“He was like, ‘All right, let’s play a little game,’” Todd said. “Then he said: ‘OK everyone, now line up from darkest to lightest skin complexion.’”

The 11th graders were then told to shuffle again.

Student Rio Brown said: “He told us to line up nappiest hair in the back and straightest hair in the front.”

Todd said the recruiter did not “rationalize” the purpose of the activity.

The university told the TV station the admissions counselor was no longer an employee, adding that admissions leadership did not approve the “inappropriate activity in advance”.

The university said its admissions staff will visit the school Monday to apologize.

Harding’s principal, Steven Stefanick, said in a statement to KFOR the recruiter “led a group activity with our students that involved inappropriate and hurtful statements”.

Harding does not condone any behavior that “undermines our community’s values”, he said.