Photo of college students taking exam with boxes on their heads sparks controversy

An Indian college was forced to apologize after photos of its students taking an exam while wearing cardboard boxes on their heads went viral.

Students at Bhagat Pre-University College, a private school located in Haveri, Karnataka, landed in hot water after running an anti-cheating experiment in which students wore cardboard boxes with a face hole cut out during a chemistry test on Oct. 16.

The boxes, which obscured the students' side vision, were meant to prevent them from looking at each other's papers, CNN reports.

After a school employee shared photos of the classroom on social media, many viewers expressed disgust over the out-of-the-box solution, including S. Suresh Kumar, who slammed the situation as "totally unacceptable."

"Nobody has any right to treat anybody more so students like animals," he wrote on Twitter. "This pervertion [sic] will be dealt with aptly."

School management head M.B. Sateesh told CNN the college provided local authorities with a written apology following the incident, assuring that the experiment was optional and that parents were informed in advance.

"They said they were comfortable with the trial," Sateesh told the outlet. "The college did not harass any student, it was optional and some [students] experimented, some did not."