At least two students at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania have been suspended from the swim team after a report that a racial slur was scratched onto a student’s body, officials said.

Officials received “a deeply concerning report of a racial slur being scratched onto a student using a plastic or ceramic tool,” officials at the 2,200-student private liberal arts school in Gettysburg said in a statement last week.

The city’s police chief, Robert Glenny Jr., said he contacted the college after hearing news reports and was told the victim chose to handle the matter through the college’s internal process, despite college officials encouraging the person to take the matter to police, WGAL-TV reported.