An investigation by a Pennsylvania college found that a student carved a racial slur into the chest of a teammate who was the only non-white person at an informal swim team meeting. “The reprehensible act was committed by a fellow athlete he considered his friend and trusted,” the victim’s family said in a statement. The family said a box cutter was used “to carve the N-word into his chest,” Reuters reports, while Gettysburg College officials said “a plastic or ceramic tool” was used. An administrator sent a school-wide email saying the attacker, whose identity the school did not release, was no longer enrolled at the school, without saying whether he had been expelled.

The school newspaper, the Gettysburgianreleased a statement from the victim’s family, saying they went public to “provide clarity, not stir up controversy, as we strive to make sense of the nightmare that is haunting our son and our family.” Gettysburg College said it is working with the unnamed victim and his family to decide what happens next, according to ABC News. The family said it reserves the right to file local, state and federal criminal charges; the local police chief said the department has not received a complaint in the case.

The family said they have filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Commission on Human Relations and have contacted local and state branches of the NAACP. “Our son did not choose to have a hateful racial slur scrawled on his chest, but he did choose not to return the hate,” the family’s statement said. “It is only the beginning of the school year and no one should be afraid to go to college,” the college’s president said. (More stories about racial slurs.)