Kaila White

The Republic | azcentral.com

Six Desert Vista High School girls are in the spotlight after a photo circulated on social media showing them wearing shirts that spell out a racial slur.

Friday was “senior picture day” at the Phoenix high school, when more than 700 seniors lined up for a panoramic class photo. It is a traditional event and common for students to wear shirts that spell out phrases.

A photo shows six smiling girls standing with their arms around each other, wearing black shirts with letters written on them in gold tape that, even with asterisks in the middle, unmistakably spell out the n-word.

The photo has a small circle in the corner, indicating it was originally posted to Snapchat, where photos disappear after 24 hours.

A different photo on Instagram shows 36 girls lined up wearing the same style of shirts that read "BEST*YOU'VE*EVER*SEEN*CLASS*OF*2016."

The photos went viral on Twitter and Facebook by Friday afternoon, where many people, including parents of Desert Vista students, called the photo racist and asked for the students to be suspended or expelled.

“That was not a school photo,” said Jill Hanks, executive director of community relations for Tempe Union High School District. Desert Vista is a Tempe Union school.

“That was taken off to the side somewhere and I don’t know who took it or who posted it. We found out about it when everyone else did, when it popped up on social media.”

School administrators must pre-approve students' shirts for the panoramic photo. The girls rearranged themselves after the school photo to take their own photo with the racial slur, Hanks said.

Roberts: Desert Vista girls show us who they are

“They do not represent DV or the community as a whole. These are six students who made a really bad decision. They do not reflect the rest of the student body, the 3,100 other students that go here, staff that work here or anyone in our district,” Hanks said.

The girls face disciplinary action, Hanks said, although she said she couldn't share what that would be.

Desert Vista previously had scheduled a sensitivity workshop for Monday called Challenge Day, a daylong program that “provides teens and adults with tools to tear down the walls of separation, and inspires participants to live, study, and work in an encouraging environment of acceptance, love, and respect,” according to its website.

“I think it’s pretty good timing,” Hanks said. “There is an obvious need for sensitivity training, and we will be addressing that.”

Rep. Reginald Bolding, D-Laveen, was offended by the photo when he heard about it Friday.

“It’s disturbing, it’s disrespectful, specifically when you think about the historical connotation that word has in African-American history and this country’s history,” said Bolding, who does not represent the school’s area. "It’s something, as individuals in this state and in this country, we have to make sure we have freedom of speech, but also want to make sure our speech is not hurting other individuals.”

In this case, he said, “That word carries a lot of hate, and hurts a lot of individuals."

Republic reporter Yvonne Wingett-Sanchez contributed to this article.