Michigan teacher says he was fired for pro-Trump tweets
Former Walled Lake Western High School teacher Justin Kucera tells his story and defends his tweets on 'Fox & Friends.'
A Michigan social studies teacher and baseball coach has claimed he was fired after posting pro-Trump tweets, telling “Fox & Friends” on Thursday that the tweets were meant to “unify” and that “nothing in the tweets are inappropriate.”
Justin Kucera said that administrators with the Walled Lake school district in Commerce Township, Mich., questioned him during a Zoom meeting after he tweeted support for Trump reopening schools.
“I’m done being silent. @realDonaldTrump is our president. Don’t @ me,” Kucera tweeted on July 6.
Kucera said he posted “a couple tweets … in support of President Trump,” which included a “retweet of president Trump saying that schools should open in the fall.”
He said he also tweeted “a reply to one of my followers who had said a comment that how it kind of sucks how liberals try to divide us and I commented back.”
“So I was questioned about those three tweets in a Zoom meeting with district administrators where they let me kind of explain my reasoning behind them and I just said I think schools we need to open and I think we need to support our president and that's what the tweets were about,” Kucera explained on Thursday.
“A couple days later, they followed up with another meeting and that's where they gave me the choice to resign where I told them no,” he continued, adding that the other option “was to be terminated.”
Host Ainsley Earhardt noted that Kucera has “said other teachers have posted negative comments about the president” and asked, “Is that a double standard if they are not fired?”
“It has to be. I don't know what else you would call it,” Kucera said in response. “What I did is no different than what other teachers do on social media. The only difference is mine is in support of President Trump and theirs are not.”
MICHIGAN TEACHER CLAIMS SCHOOL FIRED HIM FOR TWEETING 'TRUMP IS OUR PRESIDENT,' REPORT SAYS
In a statement sent to Fox News from the Walled Lake school district, a spokesperson said, “No disciplinary action was taken as a result of any support of President Trump and we are unable to comment on specific staff discipline/personnel matters.”
Earhardt asked Kucera, “If you weren't fired because you support the president and because you are conservative, why were you fired?”
“I think they are going with the anticipated reaction from students and parents,” Kucera responded. “So if you see all the comments that my tweet got, it got a lot of positive comments and it got some negative comments as well.
“I think the school district officials were using that as complaints that students might not want be in my class and that it would impede the operation of the school business,” he continued.
When asked if he regrets posting the tweets he said, “No, not at all.”
“I apologized to the school district for the negative attention that it brought them, but I didn’t apologize for what I said,” he explained, adding that “Nothing in the tweets are inappropriate.
“I just wanted to unify,” he said adding that it was “meant to be a unifying tweet to support the president regardless of if you agree with him or not.”
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The Washington Free Beacon reported that students and parents described Kucera as apolitical and supportive of students.
Fox News’ Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.