Hayer Elementary School in Waukesha, Wisconsin, was scheduled to perform Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton’s collaboration “Rainbowland” during a spring concert, but a teacher announced earlier this week that the song had been pulled from the cast. In an email to Wisconsin Public Radio, Waukesha Superintendent James Sebert explained, “The question revolved around whether the song was appropriate for the age and maturity level of the first graders.”
But the Happy Hippie Foundation, a nonprofit founded by Cyrus to support young people in the LGBTQ+ community and those who are homeless, knows the need for self-acceptance has no age.
“To the inspiring first graders of Heyer Elementary School, stay YOU,” the organization tweeted on Wednesday. “We believe in our happy hippie heart that you will be the ones who will cast aside judgment and fear and make us all more understanding and accepting.”
The Happy Hippie Foundation will also make a donation to Pride and Less Prejudice, an organization that provides classrooms from elementary school through 3rd grade with LGBTQ-inclusive books. “Read aloud, read proud” is her mantra.
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“We are rainbows, me and you
Any color, any shade
Let’s shine through… TOGETHER WE CAN START LIVING IN A RAINBOW COUNTRY.”As our founder @mileycyrus and her good fairy @dollyparton wrote those words together, they meant it. pic.twitter.com/zRjTkcWttm
— Happy Hippie Foundation (@happyhippiefdn) March 29, 2023
On “Rainbowland,” Cyrus and Parton envision a utopia without the kind of pain or hate that malice would find in a song about happiness. “Wouldn’t it be nice to live in paradise / Where we’re free to be exactly who we are / Let’s all dig deep inside,” they sing. “Put aside judgment and fear / Make wrong things right / And stop fighting / Because I promise no one will win.”
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In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Sarah Schindler, mother of a first-grader at Heyer Elementary, shared that Kermit the Frog’s “Rainbow Connection” from “The Muppet Movie” was also pulled from the concert schedule, which the school board had described as “controversial.” classified. But Kermit was eventually reinstated in the roster while Cyrus and Parton still fall by the wayside.
“I know Miley Cyrus has kind of a history of being in the spotlight and talking about drug use and sexuality and all that. And Dolly Parton supports drag queens, and you know, that’s a different thing in our country these days,” Schindler added. “It feels like the administration, principals and teachers are now starting to question all of their decisions because of these extreme policies that our school board has been putting in place for the past year or two.”