(NOTE: The children pictured are not the ones referred to in the story.)

What was apparently intended as a visual aid for a social studies presentation was a deeply offensive gesture by Clark County School District (CCSD) students.

CCSD confirmed that on Jan. 9 students came to Las Vegas Academy dressed in Ku Klux Klan outfits. In a letter to parents, the school's principal, Scott Walker, stressed that the students simply made a bad mistake.

"Wednesday, on our campus, we had an unfortunate incident where students dressed in Ku Klux Klan costumes as part of a presentation to their social studies class. While the presentation was designed to highlight the atrocities committed by the Klan, and there was no intention to harm or offend on the part of the students, it was in poor judgment and inappropriate for students to go to such lengths to convey their message," Walker wrote.

The story was picked up nationally, another setback for an already struggling Nevada school system.

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