RIVERSIDE, Mo. (AP) — The interim principal at a Kansas City-area high school has apologized for storming onto a volleyball court before a girls game and demanding that the team take off their racial unity T-shirts.

Students said the T-shirts — emblazoned with the words “Together We Rise” and three raised fists in different skin tones — are meant to promote racial equality and unity.

When Park Hill South’s interim principal, Kerrie Herren, ran out onto the volleyball court last Tuesday and demanded that the girls take off their “Together We Rise” warm-up shirts that instant, “it was just embarrassing,” said Abbie Day, the senior who’d proposed the shirts as a symbol of racial equity and inclusion.

After missing a couple of weeks of action, Park Hill South was happy to return to the court recently after the need to quarantine. These were challenging times but earlier this week they met a different kind of battle with school leadership. Prior to their Tuesday evening match with North Kansas City, the Park Hill South principal approached the team and instructed them they would need to remove their warm-up shirts. The reason: There was a team parent not happy with the shirt. The shirt in question you may be asking?