An Indiana teacher has resigned from her position after a controversial t-shirt she wore during a school trip to the White House sparked a firestorm on social media and led to a district investigation.
Tonja Luken, a teacher with Middlebury Community Schools, was photographed in front of the landmark wearing a shirt with the numbers “8647,” a code widely interpreted as a call for the assassination of the 47th president, Donald Trump.
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The now-deleted Facebook photo showed a smiling Luken and a colleague, seemingly innocuous until social media users identified the meaning behind the numerical print. The term “86” is slang, originating in the 1930s restaurant scene, for getting rid of or killing something.
The number “47” is understood to refer to Donald Trump, the 47th president. Protestors previously used the “8645” variant during Trump’s first term.
The incident drew swift condemnation and prompted Middlebury Community Schools to launch an immediate investigation upon the students’ return on June 4. In a public statement, the district emphasized its policies requiring 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 political message regardless of its content,” the statement read. “School administrators are actively investigating the situation.”
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The investigation concluded swiftly. A day after announcing the probe, the district confirmed Luken’s departure.
“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 district announced. “The teacher is no longer employed by the school corporation.”
The use of this numerical code is not isolated. Former FBI Director James Comey previously faced criticism after posting a photo on Instagram with seashells arranged in the same “8647” formation, drawing the attention of conservatives and the Secret Service.
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