A member of an Iowa school board resigned last Thursday after a social media post in which he referenced Donald Trump being assassinated came to light.
Knoxville Community School District Board member Mike Helle suggested that President Trump needs to “take in a show at Ford’s Theatre,” an apparent reference to President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
Helle was quickly reported to the Secret Service by the Knoxville Police Department, who forwarded their findings after receiving a tip from a concerned member of the community.
In response to concern over the post, Helle resigned from his position on the school board via text, notifying the district’s superintendent and school board president on Thursday evening.
Knoxville Community School District Superintendent Cassi Pearson said she was attending a middle school choir concert with board President Andrew Schmidt when both of them received a simultaneous text message from Helle announcing he was resigning from the school board.
“I had been notified earlier that he had made a Facebook post as an individual,” Pearson said of the alleged post on Helle’s personal Facebook page alluding to assassinating President Donald Trump. “He sent a text tendering his resignation from the school board.”
In a short statement to a local CBS affiliate in Des Moines Iowa, Helle warned others to be careful what they post on social media because of the possibility that it might be misconstrued.
“If I could share one important thought with all of your listeners it would be to be careful of what you post online because one comment taken out of a string of back and forth post(s) can and will be taken out of context,” he said.
District Superintendent Cassi Pearson argued that Helle’s social media post does not reflect the views or beliefs of the Knoxville Community School District and its school board members.
Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com
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