One of the spam emails received by students at Forest Grove High School in Oregon. Screenshot: KATU-TV

FOREST GROVE, Ore., Feb. 19 (UPI) -- An Oregon high school has suspended its email system after a spammer got ahold of the accounts and sent pornographic messages to students.

Forest Grove High School students said they started receiving spam messages Wednesday on their school-issued Gmail accounts and the messages that flooded in soon after included memberships to pornographic websites and emails with pornographic images.


Emma Coffey, a senior at the school, told the Portland Tribune the messages began with a single email reading, "Hi I know how to email the whole school from here."

Students said the spam problem escalated when students started using the "reply all" function to email the entire student body.

The school shut down the email system Wednesday night.

Officials said someone apparently got ahold of the master list of email accounts, but they are unsure how.

"We learned last night that students at Forest Grove High School received spam emails with graphic and highly inappropriate content in their school Gmail accounts. We are appalled by the content of these emails and regret that students would receive this type of material in their email in-boxes. As a result, we have temporarily suspended all student Gmail accounts. Students still have access to all other Google apps," principal Karen O'Neil said in a message to parents.

"Please be reassured that our network and your devices were not hacked. Student data was not compromised. We are collaborating with law enforcement and Google to identify where the emails originated and will continue to investigate until this issue is resolved," O'Neil wrote.