James Heidorn spent 14 years as a physical education teacher at Gary Elementary School in West Chicago, Illinois. He lost it all over two words.
Heidorn posted "GO ICE" on his personal Facebook page in response to a news story about a local police department cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Within days, he was placed on leave, dragged through a hearing, and ultimately resigned rather than face termination. He also lost his side job coaching soccer at a nearby private school.
Now, in his first public comments since the ordeal, Heidorn is describing the professional and personal wreckage left behind—and raising a question that should unsettle anyone who works for a living.
"This process has been professionally and personally devastating and surreal."
The timeline tells the story. On January 22, school officials notified Heidorn about "growing social media chatter" regarding his post. After meeting with HR staff, he briefly resigned—then rescinded his resignation the same day and was set to return the following Monday.
He never made it back.
Before any investigation concluded, West Chicago Mayor Daniel Bovey posted a Facebook video explaining why Heidorn's comments were "hurtful" and "offensive." The city held a "listening session" on January 26, complete with a Spanish translator. Parents encouraged each other online to keep children home from school in protest. Community members piled on. State Sen. Karina Villa declared "unwavering solidarity" with families upset about what she called "disturbing comments reportedly made by an educator."
The disturbing comments: "GO ICE."
Heidorn was pushed out under what he describes as intense pressure, long before anything resembling a fair process played out. Fox News Digital asked the district what rule Heidorn actually violated and whether teachers who were publicly "disruptive" against ICE would receive the same treatment. The district did not respond.
That silence is an answer.
What makes this story cut deeper than the usual social media firing is who Heidorn actually was inside that school. A GoFundMe page describes him as a "beloved physical education teacher" who "showed up every day for his students." He holds a master's degree in educational leadership—not because he wanted to leave the classroom, but because he wanted to be better in it.
His message to his former students strips away any pretense that this was about protecting children:
"To my students: I want you to know that I care about you deeply and always have. The person you knew in class—the one who encouraged you, played with you and cheered you on—is still the same person."
"I would never want any of you to feel unsafe or unloved. You are amazing kids, and I'm proud of every moment we shared."
This is not a man who brought politics into his classroom. By his own account—uncontradicted by anyone—he never did. His post was made on his personal Facebook page, on his own time, directed at no student or family.
"Third, I lost my career, my income and the chance to close out my time with my students properly—no farewell, no goodbyes."
Fourteen years of relationship-building, erased overnight. No closure for him. None for the kids, either.
Heidorn sees exactly what happened and names it plainly:
"It does feel like a double standard—due to my viewpoint being different from others within the community that I taught in. I feel that we should all be able to coexist with our personal political viewpoints. Fairness should apply equally, regardless of those viewpoints. If personal political speech is grounds for punishment, it should be consistent—not selective based on what side you're on."
Consider the contrast. While Heidorn was losing his livelihood for supporting a federal law enforcement agency on Facebook, teachers across the country—including in Chicago—took to the streets to protest President Trump's immigration policies. Chicago teachers stormed a local Target and harassed employees. No resignations. No listening sessions. No state senators expressed "unwavering solidarity" with the people those teachers disrupted.
Then there's Sen. Villa herself. The same legislator who branded a two-word Facebook post "disturbing" was captured on video in September chasing down ICE agents in the street. Physically pursuing federal officers enforcing the law is apparently principled activism. Typing "GO ICE" from your couch is grounds for career destruction.
That is the double standard operating in plain sight. It isn't about protecting students' feelings. It's about enforcing ideological conformity—and punishing anyone who steps outside the approved script, no matter how mildly.
To his credit, Mayor Bovey told Fox News Digital he personally wishes Heidorn well. But his public framing of the situation deserves scrutiny. Here's how he described the sequence of events:
"The teacher used his First Amendment rights to make a statement. Others used their First Amendment rights in commenting on the situation. The school board took appropriate action to go through the due process of investigating a situation which had adversely impacted the education of children. The public used their First Amendment rights to comment (in favor and against) the actions of the school board and then the teacher made a decision to resign. At the end of the day, though there were frustrations on both sides, which were stoked by inaccurate social media posts, this is how democracy works."
This is a neat little narrative. Everyone exercised their rights. Democracy hummed along. Nothing to see here.
Except Bovey posted his own video calling Heidorn's words "hurtful" and "offensive" before the district's investigation was complete. He requested the listening session that became a public pressure campaign. At that session, attendees called the post "cruel" and said "kids do not feel safe"—over a two-word expression of support for a federal agency.
When a mayor uses his platform to frame a teacher's personal speech as harmful before any process concludes, then calls the result "how democracy works," that's not democracy. That's a political official putting his thumb on the scale and calling it civics.
The consequences for Heidorn extend far beyond one lost job. He will now be required to inform any future school district he applies to that he resigned—and explain why. Every application, every interview, will begin with this story. A master's degree in educational leadership. Fourteen years of experience. A career defined by his students' success. All of it now filtered through a two-word Facebook post.
"I really don't know what is next for me, as the teaching profession has been, up to this point in time, all that I ever wanted to do. It is all I have ever studied for and teaching is what has defined me."
Heidorn says he's exploring options in education or related fields while taking time to heal. He's expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support from people who donated and shared his story.
"Most importantly, this is bigger than me: it's about whether personal opinions expressed outside of work can cost someone their livelihood without due process. I hope to see free speech matters, even when it's unpopular."
The people who ran James Heidorn out of his classroom believe they were protecting children. What they actually demonstrated—to every teacher in that district and beyond—is that your job is contingent on your private political opinions aligning with the community's dominant ideology. Express the wrong two words on your own time, and the machinery activates: social media outrage, political pressure, and administrative capitulation.
No rule was cited. No policy was named. The district won't even say what he violated.
Supporting ICE is not radical. It is not extreme. It is expressing support for a federal law enforcement agency doing the job Congress authorized it to do. Millions of Americans share that view. In West Chicago, holding it quietly on your personal Facebook page costs you everything.
James Heidorn didn't lose his career because he failed his students. He lost it because he committed the only offense that matters in institutions captured by ideological conformity—he dissented.