Texas State Board of Education Member Brandon Hall (R-District 11) is criticizing Richardson ISD after a parent discovered that a district internet filter blocked her son’s search for President Donald Trump. The district says a filter-setting error, not political censorship, caused the restriction.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, an anonymous Richardson ISD parent provided DX with video that she said showed her son attempting to research Trump for a school assignment.
According to the parent, the district device displayed a message stating, “WEBSITE BLOCKED BY RICHARDSON ISD.”
The parent said searches for former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Jeffrey Epstein did not produce the same blocking message.
Hall calls for consistent access
Hall said the cause does not change the need for students to receive consistent access to information on taxpayer-funded devices.
“There is no question that students should be able to access information about the sitting President of the United States on taxpayer-funded devices. If a school district is going to use content filters, those filters must be applied consistently, they cannot be one-sided,” Hall said.
District blames ‘rum’ match
Richardson ISD acknowledged that its filter blocked searches for Trump but denied that political motives caused the restriction.
“We appreciate the parent who brought this matter to our attention and want to assure our community that there was no intentional attempt to block access to the name ‘Trump’ through our network’s content filter,” Sandra Verduzco, executive director of communications and marketing for Richardson ISD, told The Dallas Express.
Verduzco said the district’s Technology Department investigated after receiving the parent’s report and found that the filtering software detected the letters “rum” within “Trump.”
“Upon receiving the report earlier this morning, our Technology Department immediately investigated the issue and determined that the video was incorrectly blocked because the filter identified the word ‘rum’ within the name ‘Trump,’” Verduzco said.
The district said the problem extended beyond Trump.
“As part of the review, the team discovered that this was not isolated to the word ‘Trump’; other words containing ‘rum’, such as ‘drum’, ‘rumble’, and ‘crumble’ were also being incorrectly blocked by the filter,” Verduzco said.
RISD officials said in a 2023 presentation that the district used multiple filtering tools, including software capable of filtering specific terms and topics. That presentation did not address the current incident or establish whether staff manually configured the match involving Trump.
RISD said staff corrected the filter within 30 minutes of receiving the parent’s complaint and reviewed similar matches for other incorrectly blocked words.
District denies political censorship
Verduzco rejected the suggestion that the filtering system was based on political ideology.
“District technology filtering is not based on political ideology. Access to appropriate educational content related to these topics is an important part of our students’ learning,” Verduzco said.
RISD added that its curriculum includes instruction about U.S. history and government under state standards, including lessons involving former presidents and current President Donald Trump.
“We appreciate our Technology Department’s swift response in identifying and resolving this filter setting error. We remain committed to maintaining appropriate access to content across our network,” Verduzco said.
Timeline remains unclear
Questions remain about how long the filtering error had been in place.
The Dallas Express asked Richardson ISD how long the issue had existed and whether the filter had affected Trump’s name since he took office on January 20, 2025.
The district did not answer those questions.
Provided by Dallas Express
