An Indiana public school teacher is out of a job after wearing a shirt displaying violent political messaging toward President Donald Trump during a school field trip to Washington D.C.
In a since deleted post, former Middlebury Community Schools teacher Tonja Luken posed for a photo in front of the White House wearing a shirt with the numbers “8647” on it while chaperoning her middle school’s annual eighth grade field trip to Washington D.C.
The numbers 8647 have come to be recognized as meaning to eliminate or assassinate – 86 – Trump – the 47th president – after former FBI director James Comey made a social media post containing the numbers and came under investigation.
When contacted and told The Center Square was reporting on the shirt incident, Tonja Luken responded: “I do not think that would be beneficial for anyone.”
Luken additionally told The Center Square that the trip was “not a school sponsored or affiliated trip, stated in the trip registration.”
However, the Middlebury school board reviews field trips each year, according to meeting minutes.
Furthermore, Middlebury Community Schools (MCS) said in a statement concerning the shirt matter: “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.”
According to the statement, school policies “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 said.
When MCS superintendent Jason Snyder was reached for comment, he told The Center Square that Luken “no longer works for the school district,” and referred TCS to the school statement.
The statement likewise reads that “the teacher is no longer employed by the school corporation.”
“Earlier today, Middlebury Community Schools completed its investigation into circumstances surrounding a teacher’s social media post,” the statement said.
“After the conclusion of the school corporation’s interview, when informed the school corporation would be commencing the cancellation of contract, the teacher submitted her immediate resignation,” the statement said.
MCS’ statement explained that “unlike the private sector, the public school employment termination process has several steps that are dependent upon the teacher’s specific requests.”
“Generally, that process can take anywhere from five to forty-five days,” the statement said. “At any time, a teacher may immediately resign from employment.”
Director of outreach at Defending Education Erika Sanzi told The Center Square that “this teacher could have worn this anti-Trump shirt on her own time but instead chose to violate her own school’s policy by wearing it while chaperoning a student trip to the nation’s capital.”
Defending Education is a nonprofit organization working to fight indoctrination in education through reporting, litigation and more, according to its website.
Sanzi told The Center Square that while chaperoning a field trip, Luken’s “role was that of a government employee who speaks for and represents a public school district,” Sanzi said.
“It appears the school district investigated the incident and decided to cancel her contract, which led to her resignation,” Sanzi said.
“While we can’t know the details of a personnel matter, suffice it to say that the teacher showed extremely poor judgment in a professional setting, in front of a captive audience of other people’s children,” Sanzi said.
Next to Luken in the controversial photo is a woman in a rainbow T-shirt with the words “be kind.”
