A song by Miley Cyrus has been banned from a Waukesha elementary school's first-grade music concert.
Heyer Elementary School's first-grade students were set to sing "Rainbowland," a 2017 duet by Miley Cyrus and her godmother Dolly Parton, at a May concert. However, school district Superintendent Jim Sebert confirmed to Fox 6 that the song has since been dropped from the set list, citing a specific school board policy.
"It was determined that 'Rainbowland' could be perceived as controversial," he told the outlet, which reported that the school board defines a "controversial issue" as one that "may be the subject of intense public argument."
Sarah Schindler, a parent of one of the first-graders that was initially going to sing "Rainbowland," said she believed that, "for some reason, the district sees rainbows as a political symbol."
Melissa Tempel, a first-grade dual language teacher at Heyer Elementary School, said it was not clear what the district's issue with the song was.
"I really don't know. There's so many different things it could be," she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "We do have a controversial content policy within our district. And it's a little bit vague. So it's hard to know exactly what the district would say is controversial or not."
Tempel said when she first played the song to the children it was an instant hit. So when they learned that the school's administration was not going to allow the song to be performed, they were "so sad."
"We just really feel bad because the kids were excited about it," she said. "It's just really confusing. ... It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense."
For the upcoming concert, "Rainbowland" was replaced with "Rainbow Connection" from "The Muppet Movie," which was also dropped from the set list but later re-added. Speaking with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Tempel said she had heard through the grapevine that the school board's issue was with Miley Cyrus.
"Musical artists often do things that are very controversial," Tempel said. "So that would be a really strange way to approach the controversial topic. How would you sing pretty much any song? Everybody's got something in their past that might be controversial."