WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two students at a prestigious D.C. charter school were expelled last week after they allegedly sent a bomb threat to hundreds of students from a Muslim classmate’s email account.

The two seniors, both boys, were expelled for threatening violence after a school investigation into an email with the subject line “Bomb” was sent to 600 current and former students at Washington Latin Public Charter School last Wednesday, The Washington Post reports.

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“Friday there will be a big boom,” the email read, according to WFMY.

School officials immediately informed police of the threat and launched an investigation, which led them to a laptop shared by the alleged sender and two other students.

“They soon learned the Muslim student hadn’t sent the email after all. He’d left his email account open on the shared laptop – and two other students took advantage, writing and sending the threat under his name,” WFMY reports.

“I was never really worried that it was a real threat, but you have to obviously take those things very seriously,” head of school Martha Cutts told the Post. “It can be very unsettling for students to open an email and read that.”

Cutts said the email was sent to students in eighth grade and above and two classes of alumni.

Council on American-Islamic Relations spokesman Ibrahim Hooper blamed the incident on “the overall atmosphere of Islamophobia in our society.”

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Without “hearing and seeing this kind of anti-Muslim sentiment in their daily lives, they wouldn’t have even thought to use a Muslim student’s email account to send a bomb threat,” Hooper told the Post.

He also blamed Donald Trump, in part, for an increase in anti-Muslim incidents following terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino.

“It’s been a really bad few months,” Hooper said, adding that the Washington Latin email should be considered a hate crime.

Cutts told WFMY the Muslim student victim received a lot of support from his classmates and is doing fine.

Last Friday, as Washington Latin officials were dealing with the emailed bomb threat, schools in Wincomico and Worchester counties along the Maryland shoreline were evacuated because of bomb threats.

Cutts said school officials are using episodes as “teachable moments” in discussions with students.

“We’ve had a lot of conversation in the last two days, and we use the term teachable moments, about the use of technology and respect for one another,” she said, “and one of the things we say at Washington Latin is words matter.”

The incident prompted mixed reactions online.

“There will be a big boom? Are you kidding me? This is a complete over-reaction. A couple of kids doing a thoughtless prank. Completely over-reported, and completely over-reacted upon in this day of outrage at your fingertips,” IQmatters wrote in the Post comments.

“The school did exactly the right thing by acting swiftly — and removing the offenders without hesitation. You cannot face your classmates and teachers again when you do nasty and brainless things like this,” sugarplum491 countered. “The perps will live. The worst thing for them will be trying to explain on their college applications why they suddenly changed schools.”