Patrick Meyer #

Introduction #

Patrick Meyer is a Wisconsin high school teacher who lost his job over a single social media post. Meyer, a social studies teacher at Kaukauna High School near Appleton, was fired after a special meeting of the Kaukauna Area School District Board of Education on May 27, 2026, months after a now-deleted post on X referencing Cole Allen — the man charged with attempting to assassinate President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting on April 25, 2026 — drew backlash from his community and from members of Congress. The school board had weighed his future at a special session in late April and taken no action, but after a formal hearing it upheld the decision to terminate his employment, citing violations of board policy and the significant disruption his post caused.

Background Information #

Meyer worked as a social studies teacher at Kaukauna High School in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, a school district in the Fox River Valley. Beyond his teaching role, little about his personal or professional background appeared in the public record; the coverage that defined his case was confined to the post itself and the district’s response to it. He had been placed on administrative leave after the post came to light, and his name and photo appeared in local coverage — the image accompanying 620 WTMJ’s report was provided courtesy of Kaukauna High School — making him one of the educators whose employment ended over reactions to political violence during an increasingly polarized period.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

The incident began on April 25, 2026, with the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington D.C., an attack in which President Trump was targeted. Cole Allen was charged with attempting to assassinate the president and with assaulting a federal officer at the press event. In the aftermath, Meyer published a post on X that made references to Allen. The post was later deleted, and its contents drew immediate backlash from residents and lawmakers — including Congressman Tony Wied, who publicly weighed in on the case. 620 WTMJ’s report included a screenshot of the deleted post.

The post’s precise wording was not republished in the station’s report, which described it only as making references to Allen and as the trigger for the administrative leave that followed. What is established in the coverage is the sequence: post published, post deleted, backlash from the community and lawmakers including Wied, administrative leave, and then termination.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

The reaction was immediate and came from multiple directions at once. Within the community, the post drew backlash from residents of the district. Among elected officials, Congressman Tony Wied responded publicly to the post’s emergence. Within the district itself, Meyer was placed on administrative leave while the school board considered his future; a special session of the board was held on April 30, 2026 to discuss Meyer’s employment, but no action was taken at that time.

The consequence arrived a month later. The Kaukauna Area School District Board of Education held a hearing on May 27, 2026 regarding Meyer’s employment, and following the hearing the board upheld the decision to terminate him, citing “violations of Board policy and the significant disruption caused by his social media post.” In a statement to 620 WTMJ, Superintendent Mike Slowinski said the district “recognizes and respects an individual’s right to freedom of speech” while remaining “committed to maintaining a safe, respectful, and disruption-free learning environment for all students, staff, and families.”

Current Status #

Meyer’s termination stands. The board’s decision, taken after the May 27 hearing, upheld the termination “due to violations of Board policy and the significant disruption caused by his social media post,” and no appeal, reinstatement, or legal challenge appeared in the coverage. The post at the center of the case has been deleted. Because the underlying reference was to a man who has been charged — not convicted — in the assassination attempt, and because Meyer himself faced no reported criminal process over the post, his case stands as an employment matter rather than a legal one: the board acted on policy violations and disruption, not on any finding by a court.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

A teaching career ended over a deleted post. Meyer’s firing, taken by a board that acknowledged his free-speech rights while finding the post’s disruption dispositive, shows how little recourse followed once the backlash began: a month on administrative leave, a congressional call-out, and a hearing that ended his employment. For Meyer, the loss was immediate, and whether he has pursued any remedy against the district was not reported in the coverage.