Ohio high school students disciplined for posting "Whites only" and "Blacks only" signs above water fountains

Students at an Ohio high school have been disciplined after hanging racist signs in the school's hallway and posting images on social media. Administrators at Colerain High School near Cincinnati say the signs were posted above water fountains for about 30 seconds on May 5, before being removed by the students who put them there.

According to social media posts, the signs above the water fountains said "Whites only" and "Blacks only" – harkening back to racist segregation-era rules. 

In a statement, administrators said upon being notified about the incident, district and school officials immediately began investigating and that school officials also notified parents by letter that day.

"Those who participated in this tasteless and hurtful act have been issued significant disciplinary actions," the statement reads. The administrators also said they take this matter very seriously. "This type of behavior is not and will not be condoned or tolerated," they said. "The actions that were displayed do NOT reflect the values and the culture we've worked so hard to cultivate in all of our schools across the district."

About 30% of the high school's 1,730 students are Black, according to U.S. News and World Report. About 49% is white.

CBS News has reached out to the school's principal for more information and is awaiting response.

Several high schools across the U.S. have investigated similar incidents of racism in the past few months. In Chicago, racist and anti-Semitic slurs and symbols were drawn on the wall of a school bathroom at Oak Park and River Forest High Schools earlier this month. Police were called to the school to investigate, CBS Chicago reports.

And this week, students at Coosa High School in north Georgia are suing the school after they were allegedly suspended for wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts and protesting, CBS Atlanta reports. The students say white classmates used racial slurs and waved a Confederate flag in response to them, yet were not disciplined. 

In Pearl River, New York, the  superintendent said in February some of his students made "monkey noises" at Black players during a high school basketball game against Nyack High School, CBS New York reports. Administrators were already investigating complaints about a similar incident from just a few days prior.

In Forth Worth, Texas, a teacher who was involved in a racist incident earlier this year was placed on leave. The pre-AP English teacher at Paschal High School had allowed a student to repeatedly use a a racial slur during a class presentation, CBS Dallas Fort Worth reports.