Wisconsin teacher fired for criticizing school district’s choice to ban Miley Cyrus, Dolly Parton song

The Waukesha School Board in Wisconsin unanimously voted to fire a first grade teacher after she criticized the school district for blocking the Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton song “Rainbowland” from a school concert.

As first reported by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the board fired Melissa Tempel from her position as a first-grade dual-language teacher at Heyer Elementary School on Wednesday night after holding a nearly four-hour hearing. The hearing reportedly included an hour-and-a-half period where the board deliberated in private before delivering a 9-0 decision to fire Tempel. In a statement to Heartland Signal, Tempel’s attorney Summer Murshid suggested that Tempel may seek legal action in the future.

“Of course, we are disappointed with the District’s decision,” Murshid said. “However, we received all of the information we needed to confirm the facts that underlie a First Amendment claim. Ms. Tempel looks forward to pursuing and prevailing on her First Amendment claims to ensure that her termination does not serve to chill speech by other educators.”

Tempel’s termination was recommended by the district’s superintendent James Sebert after the former teacher posted a tweet that “violated the district’s policy.”

“My first graders were so excited to sing Rainbowland for our spring concert but it has been vetoed by our administration,” Tempel wrote in March, tagging the district and both singers of the 2017 song. “When will it end?”

The district’s attorney, Christina Katt, claimed the tweet caused “substantial disruption and safety concerns” and that the school received “hundreds of emails, calls, voicemails, many of which contained vulgar, obscene and threatening language.”

Parents and students held a silent rally in support of Tempel before the hearing, where several cited the incident as a free speech violation.

“This is not about culture wars or rainbows, this is about the constitutional rights that each and every one of us have, including teachers, who do not check those rights at the door when they enter their schools,” Murshid continued. “If the First Amendment extends to protect coaches who pray on the football field and web designers who don’t want to create certain content, it certainly extends to protect public teachers who want to engage with social media on their own personal time.”

The timeline for legal action is unknown at this time, but Tempel stated on her Twitter account that she will “keep fighting for what is right.”

Although pledging to release a statement on Thursday morning, the board has yet to comment on Tempel’s firing as of press time.