More than 8 million emails with racist, “disgusting” messages flooded into the accounts of Seminole County public high school students starting Saturday, with some middle school student accounts hit as well, the school district said.
The large-scale spamming effort was blocked by late Saturday night, though district officials were still working Tuesday to delete all the messages.
Many of the emails included racist and derogatory messages, and some made references to Russia and its president Vladimir Putin, said Michael Lawrence, the school district’s spokesman, in an email. A batch of emails sent to students at Hagerty High School and Crooms Academy contained a link to a video that reportedly showed a beheading, he said.
The district does not know the purpose of all the spam but said no student or district data was breached, and the effort did not disrupt any district operations.