A veteran Wisconsin high school teacher is off the job after publishing a now-deleted social media post that named four presidential assassins and mocked recent failed attempts to kill a president. The Kaukauna Area School District placed social studies teacher Patrick Meyer on administrative leave Monday and said it was reviewing the matter.
Meyer, who has taught in the district for more than 20 years, posted the message on X. Fox News reported that the post read: "I am not impressed with recent presidential assassins. It's f---ing embarrassing! Booth, Guiteau, Czolgosz, Oswald must all be spinning in their graves! MAGAA (make Americans great assassins again)! Sad!"
The four names Meyer chose to invoke, John Wilkes Booth, Charles Guiteau, Leon Czolgosz, and Lee Harvey Oswald, are the men who successfully assassinated sitting U.S. presidents. Meyer suggested they "must be rolling over in their graves after recent failed attempts to kill a president." His "MAGAA" acronym was a deliberate twist on President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again slogan.
The post has since been deleted. But screenshots traveled fast, and the district acted the same day it learned of the content.
The Kaukauna Area School District released a statement Monday confirming it had placed the employee on administrative leave. The district said it was "taking additional action to review the matter in accordance with its policies and procedures."
In a pointed public rebuke, the district added:
"The Kaukauna Area School District is committed to maintaining a safe and supportive learning environment for all students, families, and staff, and unequivocally rejects any conduct, expression, or behavior that may encourage, condone, or promote violence in any form."
District officials also noted that Meyer's post "was not related to the Kaukauna Area School District, and there has been no evidence of a risk to the safety of our students and schools." Fox News Digital reached out to the district for additional comment and also contacted Meyer, though no responses were reported.
That distinction, no direct threat to students, is worth noting. But it does not resolve the larger question: What happens to a public school teacher who, in a position of trust over other people's children, publicly romanticizes presidential assassination?
Rep. Tony Wied, R-Wisc., did not wait long to weigh in. The congressman responded on social media with a statement that left little room for ambiguity.
"This type of disgusting rhetoric has no place in our society and does not represent our values in #WI08. It is not the example that our teachers should be setting for Northeast Wisconsin students."
Wied's reaction reflects a straightforward principle most parents share: the adults entrusted with educating children should not be glorifying political murder online. That should not be a partisan observation. Yet here we are.
The incident is hardly the first time a public figure in education has faced consequences for reckless public statements. A Hunter College professor was recently caught on a hot mic making racist remarks during a school board meeting, another case where the gap between a person's professional role and their private conduct became impossible to ignore.
Meyer's post landed during a period of heightened concern over political violence in America. The New York Post reported that the comments came amid anxiety following the recent shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, D.C. Against that backdrop, a public school teacher invoking the names of four assassins and lamenting the failure of more recent attempts reads as something far worse than a bad joke.
Meyer taught social studies, a subject that, at its best, helps young people understand civic responsibility, the peaceful transfer of power, and the rule of law. A teacher who uses his public platform to mock failed assassinations and coin a slogan celebrating successful ones has undercut the very subject he was paid to teach.
The broader pattern is familiar. When institutions tolerate or excuse inflammatory rhetoric from people in positions of authority, the message it sends is corrosive. We have seen similar dynamics play out in higher education and public life, where left-wing activists disrupted a DHS lawyer's speech at a UCLA Federalist Society event, a reminder that the willingness to shut down or shout down those you disagree with has become normalized in certain circles.
The district's statement said it was reviewing the matter, but offered no details on what "additional action" might follow beyond administrative leave. Whether Meyer faces termination, a formal reprimand, or some lesser consequence remains unclear.
Meyer himself has not spoken publicly about the post. Fox News Digital's requests for comment went unanswered. The exact date and time of the original post on X were not disclosed, nor was the account handle Meyer used.
It is also unknown whether any parents or students filed complaints before the district acted, or whether the district learned of the post through its own monitoring or through tips from the public. Those details may emerge as the review proceeds.
What is clear is that Meyer spent more than two decades in the classroom, a long career now overshadowed by a single post that managed to name-check four assassins and express disappointment that recent imitators fell short. The fact that the post was deleted does not undo the sentiment it expressed.
Accountability in public life has become uneven. Some figures face swift consequences for minor missteps; others skate past far worse. In this case, the district moved quickly, and a sitting congressman condemned the rhetoric publicly. That is the right instinct. But the question of whether Meyer returns to a classroom full of teenagers, teenagers he is supposed to be teaching about American government, is still open.
The broader climate matters here, too. When political rhetoric escalates to the point where a veteran teacher feels comfortable joking about presidential assassination on a public platform, something has gone badly wrong in the culture. This is not about free speech in the abstract. Meyer can say whatever he wants on his own time. But parents in Kaukauna have every right to ask whether a man who publicly wished assassins were more competent should be shaping their children's understanding of American history.
It is worth remembering that public servants, including teachers, are held to a higher standard precisely because they serve the public. A retired Border Patrol chief recently rebuked a senator for demeaning the agents who serve on the front lines. The principle is the same: the people who hold positions of public trust owe something to the communities they serve, even when they are off the clock.
Administrative leave is a first step. It is not a resolution. The Kaukauna Area School District now faces a decision that will say more about its values than any press release. Meyer's post was not ambiguous. It was not a misquote or an out-of-context clip. He named four assassins, expressed disappointment in recent failed attempts, and coined a slogan celebrating the act itself.
The district said it "unequivocally rejects" any conduct that may encourage or promote violence. The question is whether that rejection extends beyond a written statement and into a personnel decision.
Parents across Northeast Wisconsin, and frankly, across the country, will be watching. Not because one teacher's deleted post changes the trajectory of American politics, but because how institutions respond to moments of public reckoning tells you what they actually believe.
Twenty years in a classroom earns a teacher a long record. One post celebrating assassination earns a different kind of legacy. The district should make sure the two don't get confused.
