A first grade teacher who at a concert has been fired – after officials feared kids would see the Hannah Montana star’s ‘inappropriate’ content on Google.

The firing came nearly two months after the area’s superintendent James Sebert recommended Tempel be terminated for a tweet she wrote criticizing the district’s decision to ban the song, saying the song was inappropriate for children.

The school district has Controversial Issues in the Classroom policy which reportedly bans the use of Pride, Black Lives Matter, Thin Blue Line and ‘any other posters or materials to the such’ from classrooms.

But during a nearly four-hour hearing, the elementary school’s principal and Tempel’s supervisor, Mark Schneider, said that the song had been vetoed not because of anything having to do with Pride rainbows.

Instead Schneider claims the song was banned because the school did not want to risk young students researching Hannah Montana star Cyrus because of her raunchy internet presence.

‘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.

He also said staff members shared Tempel’s tweet with him and that he was ‘taken aback’ by it, because she had never reached out to him about her concerns.

He subsequently approved the song ‘Rainbow Connection,’ noting that rainbows were ‘not at all’ a part of his concern.

Waukesha School Board members voted 9-0 to fire first grade teacher Melissa Tempel on Wednesday following the hearing.

In late March, Tempel tweeted: ‘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?’ along with a picture of the lyrics of Rainbowland.

At the time of the incident that sparked the cascade of events that led to her firing, Tempel was working as a first-grade dual-language teacher at Heyer Elementary School.

Following Wednesday’s hearing, where board members deliberated for over an hour and a half in a closed session, Tempel’s attorney Summer Murshid said she and her client 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,’ said Murshid.

A timeline for a federal suit to be brought was not immediately clear, but Murshid said a press release would be released at the appropriate moment.

The hearing, which resembled a court trial, featured the argument from the district’s attorney, Christina Katt, that Tempel had decided to ‘substitute her own opinion over the judgment of the district administration’ by suggesting the song.

She blasted Tempel for taking to social media about the song being banned, rather than speaking to her supervisor, Mr Schneider.

‘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.

Katt argued that the teacher’s actions caused ‘substantial disruption and safety concerns,’ including an increased security presence at the elementary school, which received ‘hundreds of emails, calls, voicemails, many of which contained vulgar, obscene and threatening language.’

Schneider, the school’s principal, testified that he had consulted with the music teacher about the song choice and ultimately agreed there were better options. He noted, however, that he did not outright ban or veto the tune.

Other witnesses called by the district agreed that Tempel’s actions undermined district interests and failed to comport with the district policy of escalating a concern up the chain of command.

‘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,’ said Sebert at the hearing.

‘As I’ve stated earlier, I believe the only recommendation that I could make to you today is to terminate her employment.’

Murshid, Tempel’s attorney, argued that the teacher’s use of social media was done in her own personal time, outside of work, and that to fire her for her post would be a violation of her First Amendment rights.

‘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 told the board.

Importantly, in the tweet, which remains pinned to the top of her profile, she tagged her school district, informing online users of where this was taking place.

Tempel identifies herself in her Twitter Bio as an ‘activist.’ In late March, she wrote that she believed the school’s pushback against Rainbowland was ‘part of a wider effort to suppress LGBTQ inclusivity’ and posted the lyrics to the duet.

‘The Rainbowland story is about much more than a banned song. The result of the political pushback on LGBTQ+ inclusivity and rights in schools is unfolding and it’s tragic,’ wrote Tempel.

Outside of the building where the hearing was taking place, two groups gathered to silently protest the hearing.

Parent group Alliance for Education in Waukesha assembled in support of Tempel. One attendee told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the issue at hand is 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’ve seen those First Amendment rights under assault before, but this is where the rubber meets the road,’ said David Drigenberg.

Marcus Schroeder of Waukesha was part of the other group, who were there to support the school board.

‘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.’