A high school teacher joked that Trump's shooter missed. Now he has lost his job.

A high school teacher joked that Trump's shooter missed. Now he has lost his job.| A Wisconsin history teacher was fired after posting on social media that shooters should "make Americans great assassins again."

We trust teachers to guide our children with care. But when a teacher publicly jokes about violence against a president, that trust quickly breaks.

Patrick Meyer taught history at Kaukauna High School in Wisconsin. He went on the social media site X to share his thoughts about the recent attempts on Donald Trump's life.

Meyer wrote that he was not impressed by the shooters. He mockingly wrote that people should "make Americans great assassins again." He even named historic killers like John Wilkes Booth.

School leaders acted quickly when they saw the post. They first sent Meyer home on leave, and then they fired him.

What the facts show

• Patrick Meyer taught history at Kaukauna High School.
• He posted on X mockingly about the shooters.
• He wrote the phrase "make Americans great assassins again."
• The school district sent him home while they looked into the posts.
• The district fired him.

Where is the line between a teacher's free speech and their duty? History teachers help kids understand politics, but they also represent their schools even when they are off the clock.

When a teacher jokes about murder, it makes people wonder if they can be fair in the class. Can we still trust them to teach our kids?

We do not have a statement from Meyer or his team yet. Some people argue that teachers should have the right to speak their minds online when they are not at work.

But school boards have clear rules about public conduct, which makes a free-speech defense very hard to win in this case.

Kaukauna High School is now looking for a new history teacher to take over. Students must now adjust to a new teacher in the middle of their studies. Parents want to make sure this does not happen again.

• Will Patrick Meyer sue the school district to try to get his job back?
• How did students react when they saw their teacher's posts?
• What specific rules did the school use to fire him?