PITTSBORO, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina schools superintendent has apologized for a mock “slave auction” in which white middle-schoolers pretended to sell their Black classmates.

“Actions such as these, they just do not reflect who we are as a school system,” Chatham County Schools Superintendent Anthony Jackson said after parents raised an outcry. “And I say, unapologetically, will not be tolerated in the school system.”

The school board adopted some policy changes and will also review the student code of conduct and discipline policies involving acts of racism, Jackson said. Some parents complained that several students involved were given just a one-day suspension.

J.S. Waters School, Chatham, North Carolina

A coalition of local groups called on the board Monday to address the situation at the J.S. Waters School in Goldston and require the instigators to apologize, news outlets reported

The mock auction happened in the presence of staff and faculty and was recorded on video, according to a Chatham Organizing For Racial Equity press release. The K-8 school about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Raleigh has 195 students, and 68% are white.