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A banner showcasing that Evadale ISD's website has been shutdown by google for "offensive" materials
A Southeast Texas school district’s website was removed by Google after it was reported as being “offensive.”
On Sept. 20 at about 9 a.m., Evadale ISD officials posted on their Facebook page that their website, www.evadalek12.net was taken down because the “website has been reported to Google as ‘offensive’ and has been removed.” The Evadale High School’s mascot is the “Rebels,” traditionally represented by a Confederate soldier and battle flag. The website, again live as of Oct. 4, depicts no image of the district’s mascot, nor does the district’s official Facebook page.
According to the school district, administration was made aware of the problem when parents could not access “Lunch Money Now” because of website issues. Students will still able to purchase a lunch even if funds are not currently available because of this issue.
Evadale ISD IT Director Christopher Fikes said on the bottom of the school district’s website, which is hosted by Google, is a place to report abuse which is updated automatically every five minutes.
Fikes said when the website was removed or taken down, the district went to a backup site where many of the websites functions were accessible.
“The URL does not look normal. It’s all 100% functional except for some of the deep links,” he said. “Someone’s bookmarks will not work right.”
Fikes said, according to Google, it takes 24 to 48 hours for the website to return to it original working form. He added Google doesn’t give out information about what or how many people reported.
“I’m for transparency,” he said. “But I was glad I was able to revert back to something. The same thing could happen to it. Who ever did it could trigger it enough times to get off the automation again.”
Fikes said it has to be “quite a few” reports to Google.
“It’s nothing that accidentally happens,” he added.
Fikes said he wants to get away from Google hosting the website’s platform.