Harvard University has rescinded offers of admissions to at least ten prospective members of its Class of 2021 for trading images of an illicit and racist nature through a private Facebook group chat.

According to student newspaper The Crimson, incoming freshmen who were offered early acceptance formed a Facebook group in December titled "Harvard memes for horny bourgeois teens" and grew to nearly 100 members in size. In the group, various images and jokes of a racist and anti-Semitic tone were exchanged. One joke in particular referred to a hypothetical hanging of a Mexican child as "piñata time"

As the group swelled with members and activity, university officials found out about the group and its contents. Harvard administrators emailed students in mid-April who posted offensive material demanding they show everything they had posted in the group. The offending students were then notified they could not attend the school's visiting freshman event that month and that their admissions offers had been revoked.

Harvard University spokeswoman Rachael Dane declined to comment or reveal the names of the indivduals affected, stating that Harvard doesn't discuss the admissions status of individual applicants. The university tells accepted students that their offers can be withdrawn in full if their behavior "brings into question their honesty, maturity or moral character," among a variety of other reasons.

Some of last year's admitted freshmen class engaged in similar behavior using an app called GroupMe, which sends group text chats. That time however, they were only criticized by university administrators but not individually punished or removed from school.

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