Threatening emails sent to 5,000 students and parents from Massachusetts school account

Police in Massachusetts are investigating after a series of threatening emails were sent to 5,000 students and parents from a high school’s account.

According to the Gardner Police Department, parents and students at Gardner high school received threatening emails that appeared to originate from a school account on Friday followed by another email with graphic images.

“Unfortunately, many students and parents are reporting that they received a very inappropriate email last night, appearing to be sent from a school email account,” a post on the Gardner High School Facebook page read. “We want to apologize for the graphic content of this email. We are working closely with the Gardner Police Department to investigate this and to determine the origin of the email. Again, our apologies and we will keep you updated as more information becomes available.”

Neither the school nor the police in the town near the New Hampshire border offered specific details of what type of threat was made against the school or the nature of the images sent in the followup email. Gardner police said the email contained “racial phrases.”

Gardner is a majority white city but has a growing Hispanic population, according to 2010 census data.

“The Gardner Police Department has checked the schools to ensure they were secure an no threats were located at this time,” police said, according to NBC News. “The police department is working with the school department and the city’s technology department to investigate this matter and will continue to do our best to ensure the students and staffs safety.”

Following the incident, the school announced both in-person and virtual sessions with counselors and administrators would be made available to students.