RALEIGH - The ACLU has taken issue with an incident Tuesday in which students at Dillard Drive Middle School in Raleigh were segregated by race and sent to separate assemblies to remind them of the Wake schools' no-tolerance policy on gang activity.

Two seventh-grade girls -- one black, one Hispanic -- had "issues brewing" at the west Raleigh school, Wake schools spokesman Michael Evans said Wednesday. On Tuesday, a heated argument escalated in the seventh-grade area when the Hispanic girl tried to intimidate the black student with gang symbolism.

"It was a piece of clothing that would, via colors, be considered flagging," Evans said.

Flagging is a slang term for displaying a gang-related symbol.

Principal Teresa Abron, who is black, instructed teachers to send black seventh-graders to an assembly to discuss the incident, and Hispanic students to another assembly held at a different time. White students were not sent to either assembly.

The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina learned of the incident Wednesday and issued a statement objecting to how it was handled.

Schools are obligated to treat students equally without regard for race, and isolating groups for a gang lecture will further divide them, said Jennifer Rudinger, ACLU-NC executive director.

"If there are racial tensions at Dillard Drive Middle School, all students are affected by what happens in that school, not just the students of color," Rudinger said in a prepared statement. "A more constructive way to address this problem would have been to have an assembly for the entire seventh grade or even the entire school during which positive messages about the importance of respecting fellow classmates regardless of race or ethnicity and promoting tolerance for diversity would be conveyed, as well as the importance of following school rules."

That decision for the separate assemblies was made, Evans said, because school staff knew other black and Hispanic students had witnessed the incident, but they didn't know which ones. The two seventh-graders received "appropriate disciplinary action," Evans said.

"It was a judgment call," Evans said. "The principal needed to maintain a safe learning environment."

Evans said the school received four calls from parents Wednesday and the response has been positive.

Roughly 1,100 students attend Dillard Drive Middle School, which sits near Tryon and Jones Franklin roads. School district records show 27 percent of Dillard's students are black and 14 percent are Hispanic.

Abron did not return a call for comment Wednesday.

PTA officers said parents wanted more information.

"People I spoke with last night were reserving judgment," said Genia Herbert, vice president of the Dillard PTA executive board. "I sort of feel the same way. We need to know the context of what happened."