New York State is canceling the American history exam requirement for students to graduate high school, determining that its content could be upsetting in the wake of the Buffalo massacre.

“Our experts determined that there is content on the new Regents Examination in United States History and Government (Framework) that has the potential to compound student trauma caused by the recent violence in Buffalo,” the New York State Education Department said in a statement. 

The statement said that the content was “educationally sound” but that the shooting in Buffalo created “an unexpected and unintended context for the planned assessment.” 

The statement did not explicitly say what type of material might be problematic or how it might be related to the “reprehensible act of violence and hatred” in Buffalo.

The department says it doesn’t have enough time to modify or rewrite the assessment before the June assessments and will instead ask the Board of Regents to approve the exam’s cancellation in its next meeting.

This is the second step the department has taken toward lowering graduation requirements in the past week. It recently announced that students would be able to appeal failing Regents exam scores. 

Any score of 50 or higher on an exam may be appealed if the student is receiving a passing grade for the subject class in school. In spring 2020 and winter 2021, the exams were canceled altogether due to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the Board of Regents is embarking on a multi-year study to review high school graduation requirements and is considering scrapping the exam in its entirety.