MERCEDES - A Rio Grande Valley school district said sensitive employee information was unintentionally released.

Mercedes ISD announced Friday they accidentally released close to 1000 W-2 forms of their employees. The school district’s staff said they are concerned over the release of personal information.

Mercedes ISD superintendent Dr. Daniel Trevino Jr. said they received an email requesting W-2s of school district employees. He said staff later realized the email was sent from an unauthorized account.

“So we are applying a lock monitoring system for every employee of this district. If the information is being misused, the employee will be notified immediately,” he said.

Mercedes ISD Human Resources director Rene Guajardo said he and the rest of his staff are doing all they can to protect staff members.

“There is always a kaleidoscope of emotions that we go through, especially when we find out that the W-2 forms, when we think about our social security numbers,” he said.

Mercedes Police Department Chief Olga Maldonado said her department is actively working to solve the investigation.

“We have contacted a federal agency to see if they can help us with the servers and stuff because they are one of the best agencies that can help you with that. So, we are hoping that they can help us with their technology,” she said.

Maldonado urged anyone that may receive a suspicious email to be cautious before they open it.

The school district said they will continue to cooperate with law enforcement and the Internal Revenue Service.