Who Is D-205 Leader Blocking On Twitter?

ELMHURST, IL — Dave Moyer, superintendent of Elmhurst School District 205, maintains a Twitter account that is linked to the school's website. Yet he is apparently blocking some people from viewing or posting on the page.

Elmhurst Patch has seen messages from three Twitter users who say Moyer is blocking them from his page. If his page is official, it could be problematic if he denies access to members of the public based on their views.

On Sunday, Patch filed a public records request with the school district to get the list of Twitter users blocked from Moyer's account.

Asked about this issue Monday, Beverly Redmond, the district's executive director of communications, said, "District 205 values the diverse voices of our school community. As the matter has recently been brought to the attention of the D205 Communications and PR Department, we will examine the issue thoroughly to determine next steps."

In a Twitter discussion last week about an Elmhurst teacher's position on masks, Alicia Duell, the director of technology and information services at Wheeling School District 21, said Moyer blocked her from his Twitter account. An Elmhurst resident, Duell noted Moyer was the superintendent of her children's school district.

Clay Smith, a New York educator, said he was also blocked. "That's a shame," he said.

Meanwhile, an Elmhurst resident emailed Patch over the weekend that she, too, had been banned from the superintendent's account.

In Washington, President Donald Trump has been legally challenged for blocking people from his Twitter feed. A federal court labeled Trump's account "an official channel of communication" and therefore the president was forbidden from blocking users based on their political views. The White House has appealed to the Supreme Court.

In 2019, citizen watchdog Pat Wilder discovered that the Kankakee city government had banned users from its Facebook pages for the mayor, the city and the police department. He had obtained the list of users through a public records request. A complaint was filed with the attorney general's office, which said it would look into the matter.