All students between Grades 4 and 12 at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) received an email containing racist language from a fake account on Monday, the board said.

The message contained the N-word and no other text, according to emails forwarded to CBC News by students.

"On Monday morning, two OCDSB student email accounts sent a total of four emails to all OCDSB students (grades 4-12). In one of these emails the language used was racist and offensive, and we strongly condemn this message," said OCDSB spokesperson Darcy Knoll.

Knoll said the emails have been deleted from the student accounts, but late Monday afternoon some students were still able to access the messages.

The email which contained the racial slur was from a spoofed account, Knoll said. In other words, the sender's address was used by someone else.

"The district is investigating this misuse of our email system and working to ensure this type of incident cannot be repeated in the future," he said.

The OCDSB declined to speak with CBC in an interview Monday.