Texas State Board of Education member Brandon Hall has criticized Richardson ISD following a report that a district internet filter prevented a student from searching for President Donald Trump. Hall stated that while the specific cause of the block may vary, students require consistent access to information regarding the sitting president on taxpayer-funded devices.
He emphasized that content filters must be applied uniformly and cannot be one-sided.
The issue came to light after an anonymous parent provided video to The Dallas Express showing her son attempting to research Trump for a school assignment. The district device displayed a message indicating the website was blocked by Richardson ISD. The parent noted that searches for former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Jeffrey Epstein did not trigger the same blocking message.
Richardson ISD acknowledged that the filter blocked searches for Trump but denied that political motives were involved. Sandra Verduzco, the district’s executive director of communications and marketing, stated that the Technology Department investigated the matter after receiving the parent's report. The investigation determined that the filtering software incorrectly identified the letters "rum" within the name "Trump," causing the block.
Verduzco clarified that the district did not intentionally attempt to restrict access to the name through its network content filter.
The district reported that the error was not limited to the name Trump. During the review, staff found that other words containing the sequence "rum," such as "drum," "rumble," and "crumble," were also being incorrectly blocked. Verduzco stated that staff corrected the filter setting within 30 minutes of receiving the complaint and reviewed similar matches to ensure other incorrectly blocked words were addressed.