Two Kentucky students hanging after being dressed as Columbine shooters

A school student told USA TODAY that no one could identify the girls dressed until lunch time, when one of them started to say to the other students: "We are the shooters of the school".

"They have pretty much all black with fake blood on their faces," said Briana Stapleton, a high school senior. "At the time, it was not really scary because they did not have any weapons or anything, but the whole thing was really weird.

She said the two girls were freshmen.

The photos on social media show the two moments of Columbine's shooting. A photo showed the girls lying on the floor in the school library. Another shows them standing outside the school looking at the camera with a blank stare. They wore dark eye makeup, distressed denim jeans and black baseball caps.

"It's not the costumes that made people panic," said Stapleton. "That's when they started informing everyone and posting photos on social media that things really went sour."

Pamela Stephens, director of Adair County Schools, said in a statement: "We take the situation very seriously and our staff continues to investigate the facts and circumstances surrounding this case. Students are currently suspended.

"We do not take the distracting behavior on social media posts lightly."

The Superintendent did not specify how long the two girls were suspended. She said that an investigation is underway.

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The father of one of the girls told the NBC affiliate, LEX 18, that her daughter knew that Halloween costumes and social media posts were a mistake. He said that he initially did not know who the girls were dressed.

He also said that the girls had received death threats.

"It's ridiculous," said WHAS-TV's Amy Tarter, mother of a school student. "I think that any child who does this should be expelled and all parents who (support) his child (who do) should be prosecuted."

Tarter said that his daughter, a school elder, had seen the posts on girls' social networks and had been scandalized by the costumes.

"You worry every day about sending your child to school, and now you have people joking about it," Tarter told WHAS-TV.

Other adults in the area said they were disturbed by the costumes.

"I think it's despicable and completely unresponsive," said Brandi Hoots, 28, a graduate of Adair County High School. "The parents should have known .. Given all the stresses that schoolchildren now have with regard to school safety, it was all over the line."

She said the incident "was touching nerves" with residents of that state because of a shootout at a school that had occurred earlier this year at Marshall County High School. in western Kentucky, where two students died and 18 others were injured.