HAMMOND, Ind. - Three Indiana girls who discussed killing classmates in Facebook posts adorned with smiley faces and LOLs have reached a settlement with the school district that expelled them.

American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana attorney Gavin Rose said Tuesday the girls have returned to Griffith Public Schools for their freshman year of high school after being expelled for the second half of their eighth grade year. As far as the settlement, it was confidential and he could not discuss the details, Rose said.

The controversy began when one of the girls posted a Facebook status update "concerning her disdain for cutting herself while shaving her legs," according to court documents.

The update was only visible to that particular girl's Facebook friends. Then the three girls began commenting on the status update from their personal home computers, allegedly joking about various topics in some 70 comments that were posted in the span of two hours, Rose said earlier this year in an ABC News report.

School officials said the girls' posts showed a threat, while the ACLU said the comments were jokes made off-campus.

Documents show the lawsuit filed in federal court in Hammond was dismissed Monday.