Two Mississippi teens have been expelled for a photograph taken of them making sports-related hand signals.

At least they didn’t make finger guns. Then, they would have been in real trouble.

Two Mississippi high school students were maliciously expelled after they were photographed making supposedly gang-related hand gestures, even though the kids had no idea that simply holding up three fingers — an homage to their football jersey numbers — was a gang thing.

Fifteen-year-old Dontadrian Bruce, a student and football player at Olive Branch High School in Olive Branch, Mississippi, was photographed by his science teacher for a project. He instinctively raised his thumb and two fingers to represent his football jersey number, three.

What he didn’t know was that the Chicago-based Vice Lords gang uses the same hand gesture — and that he had unwittingly violated district policy against gang-related paraphernalia in schools, according to NBC News.

When Assistant Principal Todd Nichols noticed the picture, he promptly suspended Bruce and accused him of being a “gangbanger.”

“‘You’re suspended because you’re holding up gang signs in this picture,’” said Nichols, according to Bruce. “You’re a gangbanger.’”

Desmond Davis, a friend of Bruce’s, was also suspended for the exact same offense. Davis’s older brother also wears the number three.

The parents of the two boys were shocked and said that neither were involved with gangs.

“He’s a good child,” said Janet Hightower, Bruce’s mother, according to The Daily Mail. “I know what he does 24 hours a day. If he leaves home and goes two houses down, he’s gonna text me and let me know.”