Suspension proceedings are underway after photos surfaced online of students at The Citadel military college wearing white Ku Klux Klan-type hoods, Charleston station WCIV reported Thursday.
The images show cadets dressed in white and wearing pointed white hoods with eye holes. Citadel President Lt. Gen. John Rosa said in a statement the students were apparently dressed for a “Ghosts of Christmas Past” skit and singing Christmas carols, and that an investigation is ongoing.
Rosa also called the photos “offensive and disturbing.”
The photos were posted to Snapchat and later uploaded to Facebook by a woman who does not attend The Citadel, local TV station WCSC reported. The woman said she has been “threatened, harassed, and offered money from numerous Citadel Cadets to take it offline in order to not ‘ruin their lives.'”
A university spokesman told the Associated Press that at this point in the investigation, there’s no evidence the incident was hazing.
There are around 2,300 students in the school’s Corps of Cadets.
This post has been updated.
