The Waukesha teacher who criticized the school district’s ‘Rainbowland’ ban has been fired (2024)

The Waukesha School Board has fired a Waukesha teacher who has publicly criticized the Waukesha School District's decision to ban the song "Rainbowland" from an elementary school concert.

Board members voted 9-0 to fire Melissa Tempel after a hearing at the district's Blair Administration Building on Wednesday. The hearing lasted almost four hours and was held mostly in open session at Tempel's request. After the hearing in open session, board members deliberated for over an hour and a half in closed session before returning to open session to vote.

The hearing came almost two months after Waukesha School District superintendent James Sebert recommended Tempel be fired for a tweet criticizing the district's decision to ban the Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton song, saying it violated district policy. At the time, Tempel was working as a first-grade dual-language teacher at Heyer Elementary School.

After the hearing, Tempel's attorney, Summer Murshid, told media she and Tempel were disappointed in the decision.

"This is not a case about culture wars or rainbows. It's a case about constitutional rights, and Miss Tempel has them like every other person in this country. I think we are moving forward with next steps and Miss Tempel looks forward to vindicating her rights in federal court," Murshid said.

Murshid did not give a timeline for when a lawsuit would be filed, saying a press release would be issued at that time.

Tempel thanked those who supported her.

"I also wanted to just say hi to my students since I wasn't able to talk with them since March, and I really miss you guys and love you and wanted to be there with you this year. I hope that we get to see each other really soon," Tempel said.

Mark Kapocius, the attorney who oversaw the hearing, told a reporter the board would likely have a statement Thursday morning about its decision.

Residents rally ... and counter rally

Before the hearing, the parent group Alliance for Education in Waukesha held a silent rally outside the district's Blair Administration Building in support of Tempel. A smaller counter rally at the same time and place supported the school district.

One of the attendees, David Dringenberg, a member of the alliance, said the conversation is about First Amendment rights.

"We feel like Superintendent Sebert's recommendation for her to be fired, for her to be terminated. goes against her First Amendment rights as an employee of a public school district. We're wearing black reminding folks that there's an attempt to silence teachers and we've seen it in other avenues. Whether it's what they can wear in the classroom, pins that they can put on their lanyards, things like that. We've seen those First Amendment rights under assault before, but this is where the rubber meets the road," Drigenberg said.

Sarah Schindler, whose child was a student in Tempel's class, also showed up at the silent rally in support of Tempel.

"She has a right to her free speech. She's a citizen of this country just like everybody else, and it shows that people support that," Schindler said.

One of those at the counter rally, Marcus Schroeder of Waukesha, was there to support the school board and district.

"The fact that they're willing to take a stand and be like 'OK, if one of our teachers is not going to be in line with the way that we are running our school district and she's going to be promoting the LGBTQ agenda in her classroom and things like that, them taking a stand against that is encouraging because most school districts won't take a stand against that," he said. "I want to show that if there's a school board willing to take a stand on these issues, that I'm here to support them as well, because there's not very many of them left."

Lydia Hudson, who lives in Waukesha County and said she has friends in the Waukesha School District, was also part of the counter rally.

"Ultimately, I think teachers should stick to curriculum and not try to add on extra agenda that is in their own personal adult world," Hudson said.

Tempel's actions caused 'substantial disruption and safety concerns,' district officials said

The hearing resembled a court trial, with opening statements, an opportunity to present evidence and testimony, cross examination, redirects and closing statements.

The district's attorney, Christina Katt, said the case was "about an employee's decision to substitute her own opinion over the judgment of the district administration and the resulting consequences." Katt said Tempel disagreed with a decision her supervisor, Heyer Elementary School principal Mark Schneider, made about what song should be sung at a first-grade spring concert.

"Rather than speak with Mark Schneider directly, Ms. Tempel took to a widespread media campaign challenging the district's motives, misrepresenting the facts of her lying motivations to further her own interests rather than those of her students," Katt said in her opening statement.

Tempel's actions caused "substantial disruption and safety concerns," Katt said, which necessitated an increased security presence at Heyer Elementary and diverting district resources to respond to media inquiries. She said the school received "hundreds of emails, calls, voicemails, many of which contained vulgar, obscene and threatening language."

"This continued to build during the week of the school's spring break. Mr. Schneider will tell you he was concerned for the safety of the students and staff at the school, and he worked with Sebert and then Waukesha School District deputy superintendent Joe Koch to have an increased police presence at the school," Katt said.

Katt said Tempel's conduct required her to be fired.

"She has demonstrated a propensity to substitute her opinion over the judgment of the administration and is not willing to work within the policies adopted by the board, which resulted in substantial disruption to the district," Katt said.

The district called three witnesses: Schneider, Waukesha School District Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Sharon Thiede and Sebert.

Schneider said at Wednesday's hearing that after the music teacher asked whether it was OK to include 'Rainbowland' in the concert, he consulted with district director of elementary learning Melissa Yow. After a discussion, they agreed there were better song options. He also said he did not ban or veto "Rainbowland," but told the music teacher to make a different choice.

He told the music teacher that his concern with the song by Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton stemmed from Cyrus, who he said has previously promoted content inappropriate for young children. Schneider approved the song "Rainbow Connection," a sing-along from Kermit the Frog. He noted that rainbows were "not at all" a concern.

"If the students are Googling or researching one of the artists, some inappropriate images or videos could appear. I just felt there were better options for a first-grade concert," Schneider said, referring to Cyrus.

Schneider said staff members shared Tempel's post with him the day after she posted, and he also saw it in a Facebook group. He said he was "taken aback" by Tempel's tweet and said Tempel never reached out to him about her concerns.

Thiede agreed with Schneider that Tempel's actions undermined district interests because of the subsequent safety issues.

Sebert said during his testimony that Tempel failed to follow district policy of consulting with her supervisor and then going up the chain of command by instead posting her concerns to social media.

"Our job as a school district, as a board and an administration is to educate children. In order to do that, we have policies and procedures ... When employees choose to go around those policies or deliberately violate those policies, it places an incredible undue burden on the School District of Waukesha," Sebert said.

"In this particular instance, Ms. Tempel deliberately brought negative attention to the school district because she disagreed with a decision as opposed to following protocol and procedure, and I believe that behavior is intolerable," Sebert said. "As I've stated earlier, I believe the only recommendation that I could make to you today is to terminate her employment."

Attorney argues Melissa Tempel has First Amendment rights

Murshid argued in her opening statement that Tempel's use of social media was done on her personal time on her personal account outside of work, saying that the district does not pay Tempel to tweet or use social media. Murshid also said social media use is not within a first grade teacher's duties, saying that first grade students don't have social media.

"Specifically, the evidence is going to support our position that the tweets, the interviews and public commentary on the issues in this case represent Ms. Tempel's protected, off-duty speech as a public citizen on a matter of public concern," Murshid said.

Murshid also asked the board to not fire Tempel.

"If you follow that recommendation, you will be violating Ms. Tempel's First Amendment rights, and that would be a violation of the policy that this district has in place," Murshid said.

Tempel said at the hearing that her social media posts were never made while she was working.

"I thought that the fact that the tweet that I made, that 'Rainbowland' wasn't going to be allowed was something that the public would be really concerned about and that they were interested in knowing about it," Tempel said.

Tempel denied intending to express anything other than her personal viewpoint. When asked why she tagged the Waukesha School District in her tweet, Tempel said she wanted to let people know where it was happening.

"There was a lot of things happening in the district and a lot of policy changes that had been in the news, and I knew that the Alliance (for Education in Waukesha), parents and other media and stuff that they had been trying to ask questions about why those things were happening," Tempel said.

More: Waukesha Schools' 'Rainbowland' controversy started over this 2017 policy. Here's what it says.

More: What led up to the Waukesha School Board's decision to fire teacher Melissa Tempel

Drake Bentley contributed to this report.

ContactAlec Johnson at(262) 875-9469 oralec.johnson@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at@AlecJohnson12.