Teachers and coaches are supposed to be people you and your children can trust.

But hardly a day goes by without news of yet another authority figure blurring the line between those who work in schools and the students in their charge.

At Ursuline High School last year, the allegations included members of the team’s then-football coaching staff — including a veteran state-championship coach — looking the other way as some players committed acts of brutal hazing against teammates during a camp trip across several states in June.

School and team officials downplayed what happened, but eventually the Irish had their season canceled and a flurry of lawsuits — including federal civil-rights suits filed on behalf of alleged hazing victims and their families — were filed. Some parents of Ursuline football players turned to the courts in an effort to allow them to transfer and play for other schools, but were unsuccessful.

Now, the newly hired Niles football coach has resigned just two months after his hiring was approved in a 3-2 vote by the district’s board of education. Like his colleagues at Ursuline, it seems that a lack of common sense and leadership — at best — led to the loss of his job before he had even filled out his coaching staff.

The Red Dragons’ 69-year-old coach admitted to making “a two-word comment” Thursday about a girl student who had walked past and greeted him, two Niles football players and another student in a hallway. The former coach told a correspondent for this newspaper that his remark was meant as a “compliment” in an “upbeat, easy-going and loose” atmosphere.

“The discussion revolved around the benefits of playing football next fall and how high expectations for a successful season were. A female student-athlete walked by and we all shared hellos,” he said. “As she walked down the hall a good 20 feet away, the young males looked. I then uttered two words that were meant as a compliment but were construed and interpreted as an inappropriate comment later that afternoon.”

A day later, after meeting with school officials and speaking by phone with Niles Superintendent Ann Marie Thigpen, who had recommended him to the school board just a couple of months earlier, it was determined he should resign.

“I am guilty of the following: Saying those two words, being trustworthy, being comfortable in a high school setting, letting my guard down, being old school,” the former coach said.

We’ve known and dealt with many “old school” coaches over the years, but have not met a single one who’d associate being old school with making that kind of comment.

Certainly, the atmosphere in schools has changed in the 20 years since this man ran his own program, but let’s not pretend that the comment he made Thursday would have been acceptable in 2006, 1996, 1986 or 1976. We don’t care how far you want to go back — coaches and teachers aren’t supposed to act like they’re in junior high.

If that kind of behavior is what a coach believes will help him bond with his players, he’s in the wrong business.

We know that this incident isn’t the worst offense a teacher or coach in the Valley has committed. We’ve published stories about teachers and coaches who’ve crossed the line in far more egregious ways. Some not only lost their jobs, but spent time in prison for crimes against students.

We can’t even say with any amount of certainty that these things didn’t happen in the past, because in some places they did. But that doesn’t mean we should lower our expectations for those entrusted with the job of helping to teach and coach our children.

We need to be able to trust them when our kids are in their care. That’s why it was ironic that the former Niles coach said that he was guilty of — among other things — being trustworthy. He’s certainly not guilty of having a lot of self-awareness and common sense.

We don’t think the word “trustworthy” means what he thinks it means. That’s probably one reason he is no longer employed.

Niles officials didn’t want to conduct a football coaching search in late March, but the district deserves credit for transparency and for ensuring that their new coach did the right thing and resigned.

There’s a lesson in there for some other Mahoning Valley schools.