NEW YORK (AP) — A group of about 100 high school students traveling from New York to Atlanta were ejected from an AirTran flight after the pilot and crew lost patience with kids who wouldn't sit down and put away their cellphones.

Seniors from the Yeshiva of Flatbush in Brooklyn were on the flight about 6 a.m. Monday at LaGuardia Airport.

AirTran's parent company, Southwest Airlines, said in a statement that the crew and captain asked passengers several times to put their mobile devices away. The airline said that when some passengers didn't comply, the whole group of students was ordered to disembark.

School Executive Director Seth Linfield said Tuesday that administrators are still looking into the situation, but "preliminarily, it does not appear that the action taken by the flight crew was justified."