Students appear like KKK in photo

Northeastern University suspended a partnership with a New Jersey hospital this week after two of its students were allegedly coerced by paramedics into dressing as members of the Ku Klux Klan, officials said.

A grainy cellphone photograph released by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey shows two people wearing white sheets, one clenching a makeshift cross constructed from wood and tape. Someone in an emergency medical services uniform can be seen adjusting the other student's sheet.

"The actions taken by the individuals in this instance are appalling," William F. Owen Jr., UMDNJ president, said in a statement on the university's website. An investigation into the photograph and what transpired July 6 is underway, said spokeswoman Terri Guess in a phone interview yesterday.

Officials at UMDNJ, which operates Newark's University Hospital, said the three paramedics involved in the staging were fired this week. Timothy Prahm was fired July 7, Guess said. Henry Solares and Thomas Hart were fired July 10, she said. They could not be reached for comment.

The two students, as well as two others also training at the hospital, were placed at UMDNJ this summer by Northeastern as part of an Emergency Medical Technician certificate program, said Renata Nyul, a spokeswoman for Northeastern. All four immediately returned to Boston, where they were placed into new programs, Nyul said. The names of the students were not released.

At least one of the EMS personnel served as an instructor to the students, Guess said."UMDNJ has never and will never tolerate attitudes and behaviors that discriminate against any individual or group," Owen said in the statement. Reached at his home yesterday, Owen referred further comment to the university's press office.

Philomena Mantella, a senior vice president at Northeastern, called the incident "appalling and offensive" in a statement.

"We condemn the offenders' atrocious conduct and support President Owen's swift and decisive response and his institution's zero-tolerance philosophy," Mantella said.

Northeastern has cut ties with the hospital, where eight students have trained each year since 2002, pending the outcome of an investigation, Nyul said.