Indiana teacher resigns after wearing anti-Trump '8647' T-shirt during White House trip

ELHART COUNTY, INDIANA: A middle school teacher from Indiana has resigned following backlash over a politically charged T-shirt she wore while chaperoning a class trip to the White House.

Tonja Luken, a teacher affiliated with Middlebury Community Schools, drew attention on June 4 after posting a now-deleted photo to Facebook showing herself and a colleague smiling outside the White House, reports The Mail.

Indiana teacher quits after wearing controversial ‘8647’ shirt during White House school trip

What initially appeared to be an innocent snapshot of a school field trip quickly escalated into controversy once users online noticed a cryptic code on Tonja Luken’s shirt, “8647.”

While the shirt displayed no explicit language, the number “8647” has become an increasingly recognized political shorthand in some online circles. The phrase “86” slang originating from 1930s restaurant culture can mean to discard, cancel, or eliminate. Combined with “47,” widely assumed to reference Donald Trump’s bid to become the 47th president, many interpreted the shirt as a veiled call to harm or oppose the president.

In response to the growing controversy, Middlebury Community Schools released a public statement condemning Luken’s conduct and highlighting the district’s strict policies on political neutrality.

"Middlebury Community Schools owns policies that require teachers to refrain from using their position to promote partisan political views. This prohibition applies to all teachers, regardless of their political leanings, and to every partisan political message, regardless of its content," the statement began. 

It added, "Our educators should not be advocating personal political views, either directly or indirectly, to our students during the school day or while supervising students at a school function,” 

"Earlier this week, Middlebury Community Schools’ administration learned of a social media post made by a teacher while serving as a chaperone on a student trip to our nation’s capital, Washington, DC. In the posted photograph, the teacher is wearing a T-shirt possessing a partisan political message while supervising students. School administrators are actively investigating the situation. The student trip only returned to Middlebury on Wednesday, June 4, which unfortunately slowed the investigation process," the statement added about the current situation. 

On June 5, officials revealed that Luken had voluntarily resigned after learning her contract was likely to be terminated.

“Earlier today, Middlebury Community Schools completed its investigation into circumstances surrounding a teacher’s social media post,” the district confirmed. “After the conclusion of the school corporation’s interview, when informed the school corporation would be commencing the cancellation of her contract, the teacher submitted her immediate resignation. The teacher is no longer employed by the school corporation.”

Luken, a married mother of five, has since deactivated or archived her public social media accounts and has not issued any public comment about the incident or her resignation.

Indiana teacher faces backlash for wearing '8647' T-shirt to White House

Tonja Luken is facing a wave of criticism online after a photo surfaced showing her wearing a T-shirt that read “8647” during a student trip to the White House. 

Outraged users took to social media to express their concern, calling Luken’s shirt a veiled threat and questioning her judgment as an educator. “They need to be arrested for a threat on a United States President's life. She is in front of his house and smiling about it,” one wrote. 

“How ironic that you can wear an 8647 shirt next to a person who says ‘be kind’ with a rainbow,” another commented, pointing to perceived hypocrisy.

“I thought teachers were supposed to be role models?” wrote one.

Some responses even drew parallels to past controversies, including former FBI Director James Comey’s infamous Instagram post that included a photo of shells arranged to form the numbers “8647.”

“Let me guess, she’s just like James Comey — she didn’t know what 8647 meant,” one user posted sarcastically, while another added, "Resigning was the right thing to do aside from not wearing the shirt in the first place."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.