Tonja Luken, a Middlebury teacher, has resigned following her wearing a T-shirt with a phrase some have interpreted as a call for violence against Pres. Donald Trump. Photo by nuttawan jayawan, Vecteezy.

News Release

MIDDLEBURY — A Middlebury Community Schools teacher has resigned following backlash over a photo shared on social media that showed her wearing a T-shirt with a phrase some have interpreted as a call for violence against Pres. Donald Trump.

Tonja Luken, a middle school English teacher, was serving as a chaperone on an eighth-grade field trip to Washington, D.C., earlier this week when she changed her Facebook profile picture to an image of herself and another chaperone. In the photo, Luken is seen wearing a blue floral T-shirt bearing the numbers “8647,” a combination critics say is a coded phrase, where ’86’ is slang for “to kill” and “47” references Trump as the 47th president.

The image quickly drew widespread attention on social media, including from Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, who reposted the image on X and criticized the public school system.

“Middlebury Schools here in Elkhart County Indiana have a teacher wearing a shirt calling for the assassination of President Trump (8647) on a DC school trip!” Beckwith wrote. “This is OUR Indiana public school system …. Do better Elkhart County!”

Some commentators also called for disciplinary action against the second chaperone in the photo, who was wearing a black shirt with a rainbow design and the words “Be Kind —” a shirt that had reportedly been marked as Pride-themed, leading to claims it was also political. Middlebury Community Schools responded with a statement Wednesday emphasizing its policy prohibiting staff from promoting partisan political views during school functions.

“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,” the district said.

The district said the trip had only recently concluded, which initially delayed the investigation. By Thursday afternoon, officials announced that Luken had resigned. “Earlier today, Middlebury Community Schools completed its investigation into circumstances surrounding a teacher’s social media post,” the district said in a follow-up statement.

“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 concluded. “The teacher is no longer employed by the school corporation.”

The district also noted that due to due process protections and employment laws governing public schools in Indiana, the formal termination process typically takes five to 45 days unless a teacher chooses to resign voluntarily.