Teacher Fired for Criticizing 'Rainbowland' Song Blasts School Board

A Wisconsin teacher who was fired from her job after she criticized her school district's decision to ban a song promoting LGBTQ+ acceptance is planning to file a lawsuit.

The board governing public schools in Waukesha unanimously voted to dismiss Melissa Tempel from her job as a first-grade teacher at Heyer Elementary School in July.

Tempel's dispute with the district dates back to March when she publicly called out the district for not allowing students to sing "Rainbowland," a Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton duet, at a spring concert earlier this year.

School officials banned it from the concert due to the district's policy against raising controversial issues in classrooms, but declined to say why they considered the song controversial, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Tempel, 45, told Newsweek that she believes the song was banned because it references rainbows—a well-known symbol of the LGBTQ community. "I also knew that nationally, there has been this movement towards really censoring what kids are learning in public schools," she said. "I knew people would want to know about it."

Tempel said the theme for the concert was "The World" and had the setlist also included "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles and "What a Wonderful World," by Louis Armstrong. School officials also initially banned the song "Rainbow Connection" from The Muppets, Tempel said.

Tempel took to X, formerly Twitter, on March 21, writing: "My first graders were so excited to sing Rainbowland for our spring concert but it has been vetoed by our administration. When will it end?"

The post soon went viral, and Tempel said she gave interviews to media outlets over spring break.

When she returned to school in early April, Tempel said she was informed that she was being placed on administrative leave. "I never went back to my classroom," she said.

The following month, she was notified that the school district's superintendent James Sebert would be recommending that the education board terminate her.

At the hearing in July, WISN reported Sebert said Tempel "deliberately brought negative attention to the school district because she disagreed with the decision as opposed to following protocol and procedure." He added: "I believe that behavior is intolerable."

Summer Murshid, a lawyer representing Tempel, told Newsweek she is preparing to file a lawsuit against the district on her client's behalf in the coming weeks.

Tempel "was speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern," she said. "To terminate her for that reason is a violation of her First Amendment rights."

When contacted for comment, a spokesperson for the Waukesha school district pointed Newsweek to a July 12 statement released after Tempel's firing.

"Despite allegations otherwise, the Board's decision was not based upon any prohibited basis, particularly Ms. Tempel's right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution," the statement said.

"The Board found that Ms. Tempel did not follow Board Policy on multiple accounts, which resulted in considerable disruption to the District. The decision of the Board was not about any particular song, that may or may not have been selected for a concert, but the process by which an employee goes about expressing their concerns in a productive manner in accordance with Board Policy."

Tempel was met with backlash online from those who agree that either the song was inappropriate or the school district was within its rights.

"Miley Cyrus isn't exactly the best role model for 1st graders," replied Jasmine Keith to one of Tempel's posts on X.

Cyrus told In Touch Weekly in 2019 that she was aware that parents "forbid" their children from listening to her music because she was a "bad influence".

Marc Tillus wrote: "Keep your activism out of the classroom and all will be good, you didn't and you have been fired - hopefully you are not allowed in any classroom again."

Tempel, who was been teaching for 23 years, five of them at Heyer Elementary School, said the school district's ban on controversial issues had led to rainbows being removed from classrooms, as well as signs declaring support for the Black Lives Matter movement and that classrooms were "anti-racist."

"One time, they had custodians over the winter break come through and take down all the signs that the custodians viewed as controversial," she said.

The ACLU of Wisconsin alleged last year that the Waukesha School District was not enforcing its ban on controversial and political signs equally and that it had led to increased bullying of LGBTQ students.

Tempel also pointed to other measures that she says made schools in the district a less inclusive place.

They included a ban on staff from referring to students by any name or pronoun other than the one consistent with their biological sex without written parental permission and changes to the dress code policy that prohibit clothing that could be considered political, controversial, divisive or distracting.

"I had a rainbow mask and... when they changed the dress code policy, they said that when we wore masks, they had to be one color," she said.

Tempel said that while she has not been put off from teaching, she is currently focusing on supporting other teachers in a similar position to her.

"I think it's time for people to start paying attention to what's happening to not only to teachers, but to students and public schools," she said. "Because the implications of the new school board policies are terrifying."

She singled out Florida, where Governor and Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis has signed legislation on a number of education issues after accusing public schools of liberal indoctrination.

"Every single day, you're hearing about how history is being rewritten for the textbooks, and how people that belong to the LGBTQ community are being told they don't belong in schools," she said.

"Teachers are the ones that are with students eight hours a day, and we're the ones that see what the kids need and support them. And when we're being told that we are not allowed to discuss who they are and the issues that they're having, and to support them by supporting their identities, we're affecting the students. And it really seems like a very strategic effort to silence them [and] silence us."

Conservative groups like Moms for Liberty and school districts that are "changing policies and firing teachers are trying to create fear for educators in that and trying to make them scared of speaking out for what we know is right," Tempel added.

"Teachers should continue to speak out, because we are talking about what is best for our students and there's nothing wrong with that."

Correction 8/15/23, 6:20 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to correct Jasmine Keith's last name.