Watertown School Board considers whether to allow LGBTQ-related song

• The Watertown School Board is considering whether to allow the high school wind symphony to perform a song with ties to LGBTQ issues.
• The song, "A Mother of a Revolution," celebrates Marsha P. Johnson and the Stonewall uprising.
• The board has scheduled a special meeting to decide on the issue before the wind symphony's May 18 concert.

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

The Watertown School Board is considering whether to allow the Watertown High School wind symphony to play a song that has ties to the LGBTQ community.

The wind symphony has been preparing to play "A Mother of a Revolution," written by Omar Thomas in 2019, at its May 18 concert. The song focuses on a trans woman, Marsha Johnson, who is credited with being one of the "instigators of the famous Stonewall uprising of June 28,1969 – one of the pivotal events of the LGBTQ liberation movement of the 20th century – which is commemorated annually during the worldwide Gay Pride celebrations," according to Thomas' website.

The School Board plans to hold a special meeting May 12 to discuss the song. An agenda for the meeting hadn't been posted on the school district's website by the afternoon of May 7.

Watertown School Board Vice President Sam Ouweneel said at a May 5 committee meeting that the board has heard from parents and others in the district with concerns about the piece. While he praised LaDew for following the district's controversial policy, Ouweneel said he did not think the policy should prevent it from being considered inappropriate for a public school.

"A piece that celebrates Marsha Johnson, who was an individual who engaged in crossdressing, who did engage in sex work - I think that’s pretty well established - was a prostitute, and during a raid on the Stonewall Inn, which was being run as a speakeasy and a location where the mafia or mob could traffic drugs, chose to throw either a brick or a stone at a police officer - I think that there is an issue with having a piece of material or curriculum that is celebrating that kind of activity," Ouweneel said at the committee meeting.

There are conflicting stories about Johnson's role in the uprising, according to the New York Historical, a museum. One account says Johnson threw a shot glass at a mirror; another says Johnson climbed a lamppost and shattered a police car's windshield when she dropped a heavy purse on it.

Watertown School Board President Laurie Hoffman said in a May 6 email to a reporter that the board would withhold comment to the media until after the May 12 meeting "in the interest of preserving authentic discussion, in full transparency before the community."

Board member Craig Wortman said he will not attend the May 12 meeting because he will be at a music event involving his children.

"In part, this is due to the board leadership’s decision to elevate this matter beyond what I believe was necessary and to schedule a last-minute meeting," Wortman said in an email to a reporter.

The board took specific action in crafting and adopting the policy, according to Wortman said.

"Put simply, when policy language is silent on a particular point or lacks clear direction, decisions made within those boundaries are permissible under board policy," he said. "Staff members cannot be expected to 'read the board’s mind' regarding what is or is not permissible beyond what is clearly stated in policy.

"That was the situation in this case, and it is why, during my tenure as board president, I saw no reason to intervene in what I considered a day-to-day administrative matter."

Wortman said the controversial issues policy had been codified with assistance from Ouweneel.

"While there may be differing perspectives regarding the reasons for supporting the continuation of this piece, I do agree that the students should be allowed to move forward with their performance," Wortman said. He emphasized that he was speaking from his personal position, and not as representing the board as a whole.

None of the other seven board members responded to messages sent by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel requesting comment.

Did the band director follow policy with the song selection?

Watertown High School band director Reid LaDew said in a phone interview that he followed the school board's controversial issues policy when he sent a letter to parents in October, offering an opt-out option for those who wanted to excuse their children from the performance.

Three students opted out, but two siblings opted back in, LaDew said at the May 5 meeting. Their parent was fine with them being in the classroom to learn the piece but did not want them performing it during the concert, he said.

LaDew said that what he tried to make clear to parents was that students could gain knowledge and musical skills from studying the piece without discussing their personal beliefs on the issue.

The goal was to understand how musicians, artists, celebrities and people in the public eye use their platform, art or skill to be inspired by events or bring attention to what they believe in, he said.

"So really, the thought was to explore that end of it, to understand why Omar Thomas decided to use this historical event as inspiration and to learn enough about the event to be able to inform our study of the music, to really give the music a little bit of character," he said. "What can we dig out from that to inform our performance?

"I think understanding the composer's intention – we don't have to agree with their intention – to gain an understanding of why they wrote what they wrote and how they want that music to sound."

LaDew said he shared similar reasons with the board's educational services committee on May 5.

Some community members think the song should be allowed

Wendy Pliska, a leader of Social Justice Watertown and a parent of two children at Watertown High School, has a child in the wind symphony. She called the board's decision to consider pulling the song from the concert "another witch hunt."

"It's just another way to intimidate teachers. It's just another way to marginalize, our queer, trans and Black students. It's just another way for them to show who's in charge," she said.

"I've seen folks talking about if they ban this, what's next? If they ban a piece of instrumental music that doesn't even have words just because they don't like the person it was dedicated to, what else are they going to censor? Like, are they going to tell kids in our classes that they can't make art about specific topics?"

Janet Anderson, whose daughter also plays in the wind symphony, said she was confused about the board considering pulling the song from the concert since LaDew followed the board's own policy.

She said her daughter has friends who identify with the song and that her daughter is upset about the possibility that the wind symphony will be prohibited from performing the piece.

"She has been practicing for a long time. She likes challenging herself when it comes to musical pieces, and she doesn't see why the history behind the music should prevent them from playing it either," Anderson said.

Ash Moreno, a 2024 Watertown High School graduate who identifies as nonbinary and bisexual, was a member of the school's wind symphony. They said the board "is trying to make something out of nothing."

"I want people to also realize that, one, even though it wasn't the intention to put my communities into light, I feel like everybody finds us as something dangerous and we're just normal people like you are, like that random person on the street is. We're all just normal people.

"As a musician, I can't imagine working on a piece, fine-tuning it and learning all of our parts, and putting it all together and making it sound amazing and then being told you can't play it because the School Board just kind of denied the fact that you could play it. I feel like that would infuriate me as a musician," Moreno said.

Some community members object to the song's performance

But some community members take issue with the song.

John Markl, whose Facebook profile said he lives in Watertown, said, in part, on a May 2 Facebook post: "This is not ok!! This is radical curriculum! This is indoctrination!" while calling the song "an LGTBQ+ tribute piece."Markl shared screenshots of the letter LaDew sent to parents about the song and the option to opt out.

"You’ll notice the director very carefully avoids mentioning that the piece is a LGTBQ+ tribute, instead implying the controversy is because the composer happens to be African American. Just say no to critical theory," Markl's post said.

A Facebook profile for Susan Shelby from Watertown said in a May 7 Facebook post, in part:

"Political Activism in Music class: The problem is not the music in and of itself. It's the SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS that were used to teach the kids that they're not good people if they don't have empathy towards people like this (s3x workers who start riots by throwing bricks at police) and that they must celebrate them," Shelby's post said.

Shelby's post also said the song "is specifically a CELEBRATION of this person after the kids are trained to WANT to celebrate him. They are teaching kids WHAT to think."

"This is political activism/Social Justice training happening in the classroom. And remember these are the people who want girls to be forced to tolerate males in their spaces and want to punish [anyone who says trans women aren't women.] And by the way ... why wasn't something chosen that instead celebrated our 250th Anniversary of America instead of Marxist Social Justice?? #WUSD," the post said.

Neither Markl nor Shelby immediately responded to a reporter's Facebook messages seeking further comment.

Waukesha Schools had its own controversy over a song

This is not the first time in recent years that a school district in southeastern Wisconsin has dealt with controversy over a song.

In spring 2023, Melissa Tempel, a first-grade teacher in the Waukesha School District, posted criticism on social media over the district's decision not to allow the song "Rainbowland" to be played at a spring concert.

The principal and a district administrator deemed the song, written by Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus, "controversial" under its controversial issues policy.

Cyrus said in a 2017 video, in part: "... it says 'we are rainbows, me and you, every color and every hue.' It's about embracing everyone that's different. It says 'I won't sleep a wink. It's the only thought I think.' It's about being dedicated to making change."

Tempel was placed on leave in April 2023 and received a letter the next month from Superintendent James Sebert recommending her firing. In July 2023, the Waukesha School Board followed through on that recommendation.

At Tempel's termination hearing, the principal of Tempel's school testified that he did not think "rainbows" were a concern, but that the song was an inappropriate choice for a first-grade concert out of worry that students might Google one of the artists, referring to Cyrus, and find inappropriate images or videos.

Tempel sued the district in September 2023, claiming the district violated her First Amendment rights. However, a federal judge dismissed Tempel's lawsuit in late September 2025. Tempel appealed that court's decision in October 2025. Her appeal is still being decided.

Contact Alec Johnson at 262-875-9469 or [email protected]. Follow him on X at @AlecJohnson12.