Parent Says RISD Filter Blocked Trump Search | Blocked on computer image by Canva; President Trump image by Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock
Richardson ISD is facing questions after a parent alleged that the district’s internet filtering system blocked her son’s search for President Donald Trump while allowing searches for former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Jeffrey Epstein.
An anonymous Richardson ISD parent provided The Dallas Express with video that she said shows her son attempting to research Trump for a school assignment.
According to the parent, when the student searched for Trump, the district device displayed a message stating, “WEBSITE BLOCKED BY RICHARDSON ISD.”
The parent said the same blocking message did not appear when her son searched for Biden, Harris, or Epstein.
“My child was researching our current president for a school assignment and discovered that the district’s web content filter had blocked “Trump” from search results. This means students can’t access legitimate educational and news content, including current-events research, government and civics coursework, and basic search results about the sitting U.S. President. This is very concerning, as it amounts to censorship of information about a current public official,” the parent told The Dallas Express.
The parent said she then had her son test other politically sensitive names to determine whether the restriction extended beyond Trump.
“To see if this was a broader issue, I asked him to test ‘Biden’ and ‘Harris,’ and neither of those was blocked. I also asked him to search for Eppstein, which was also available. That suggests this isn’t a general filter for politically sensitive content; it appears to be a keyword-specific block aimed only at ‘Trump,’” the parent said.
The apparent discrepancy has prompted the parent to seek answers about how Richardson ISD’s web filtering system operates and who is responsible for determining which searches or websites students can access.
“We would like to know why this censorship is in place, and we are requesting the specific board policy, administrative regulation, or filtering standard that authorizes or describes this practice, including which department or vendor configuration is responsible for the rule,” the parent told The Dallas Express.
The video provided to The Dallas Express shows what appeared on the student’s device at the time of the recording. However, the video alone does not establish why the Trump search triggered the block, whether the restriction was intentionally configured by Richardson ISD, or whether a particular website, search result, filtering category, or third-party software caused the message.
The incident comes as North Texas school districts have previously faced allegations involving censorship and First Amendment rights.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Ben Davis, husband of former Republican candidate for Dallas County judge Lauren Davis, alleged in 2022 that Dallas ISD officials colluded to violate his family’s First Amendment right to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The allegation stemmed from a September 2021 email sent by then-Dallas ISD Trustee Dustin Marshall to Pam Lear, then-chief of staff for Superintendent Michael Hinojosa.
“I’d like to formally request that all communication going forward with the Davis family be handled by our legal department so that our Administrative team can focus on educating kids instead of this constant distraction,” Marshall previously wrote.
Marshall additionally requested that the district’s IT department block other Dallas ISD email addresses from receiving emails from the Davis family, according to records obtained through an open records request.
The Davis family told The Dallas Express at the time that they were never notified that their emails had been blocked.
In Richardson ISD, the parent’s allegations now raise questions about whether the apparent Trump restriction was intentional and whether other political figures or subjects are treated differently by the district’s filtering system.
The Dallas Express reached out to Richardson ISD asking why the Trump search was blocked, whether the restriction was intentional, what filtering software or policy produced the message, and whether the district plans to remove or modify the restriction.
Richardson ISD did not respond by publication.