PECULIAR, Mo. (AP) -- The American Civil Liberties Union says a suburban Kansas City superintendent missed the point with the remarks he made after two white students gave a black student a noose made out of string.

Raymore-Peculiar school district Superintendent Jeff Kyle told KCTV that it would be hard to hurt anybody with the string noose and that it didn't fit his image of a large piece of rope used to hang outlaws in the Old West.

The two white students received three days of in-school suspension.

Doug Bonney of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and western Missouri told Kyle in a letter that any noose carries with it "the legacy of lynchings."

The Kansas City Star reported that the U.S Education and Justice departments are investigating how the matter was handled.