CHICAGO – Two Marist High School students are suing their school after they were expelled over a controversy surrounding a racist group text involving dozens of girls.

The girls, both seniors, were among 32 white teens who met at a religious retreat where they were told their comments “would be strictly confidential,” a lawsuit filed by the girls’ fathers in Cook County Circuit Court alleges.

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Months after the September retreat, one of the participants shared a tweet in a shared group chat that alleged gang members planned to target white residents in retaliation for an off duty officer who killed a black man on Nov. 5, according to ABC 7.

That conversation allegedly devolved into comments “others believed to be racially insensitive,” but screenshots of the group chat were also “altered” to show one person stating “I F—Hate N—“ and others agreeing with the sentiment, according to the lawsuit.

As a result, five students – including the two complainants – were suspended or expelled “without any formal disciplinary process,” the lawsuit alleges.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times:

The suit alleges the girls were “labeled as racists and used as scapegoats by Marist to respond to an array of social media criticisms and media pressure,” and that the school allowed other people to share the girls’ full names in comments on Marist’s social media posts, violating their privacy as minors and jeopardizing their college admissions.

Additionally, the girls claim that administrators were unfair in singling them out in the 287-message conversation with dozens of others who used “similar language.”

The lawsuit names Marist High School, along with principal Larry Tucker and discipline dean Beth O’Neill, as defendants. The girls’ fathers want their daughters reinstated to school or to reimbursed $65,000 a piece for tuition and costs, as well as more than $1 million for invasion of privacy, the news site reports.

Tucker and O’Neill did not respond to messages for comment from the media.

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School officials on Nov. 7, as the controversy erupted on social media, sent out a message on Facebook and Twitter to announce that administrators were “devastated by this situation.”

The statement assured the public that “disciplinary action is being taken” against students responsible.

A follow up letter to parents on Nov. 10 stated that an unspecified number of students “involved in this event will not be in attendance at Marist,” the Sun-Times reports.