Rochester Students Hit With Explicit, Threatening Mass Emails
Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - Students and staff in the Rochester School District were bombarded with sexually explicit and threatening emails this week.
A spokesperson for the district says a student was able to access an email distribution list that was inadvertently configured to allow broader access than intended. That allowed the distribution of “inappropriate material” to a number of student accounts. Sources have told KROC News that the material included sexually explicit images and threatening messages, including death threats. The sources reported that the messages went out to a large number of students at all grade levels.
District Blames Email Permission Error
The district says the incident was the result of a specific permission setting on a distribution list, which allowed a student to send an unauthorized mass message. A statement says the Technology Department worked immediately to identify the source and recall the messages. It also says the configuration issue has been identified and corrected, and that students are now blocked from sending to the distribution groups.
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While the issue has been resolved, the statement says it was decided to keep student email accounts active to ensure that “legitimate educational collaboration and communication with teachers via learning platforms continued without disruption.”
Students Responsible Identified
The district spokesperson says the students responsible for originating and forwarding the messages have been identified. Due to privacy laws, their names cannot be released. The spokesperson says their behavior is being addressed “strictly in accordance with our Acceptable Use Policy and Student Code of Conduct.”
The district’s statement on the incident concludes by saying, “We take the safety and emotional well-being of our students seriously. We regret that students were exposed to this content, and we have taken the necessary technical and administrative steps to prevent such incidents from happening again.”
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