Wisconsin school district bans Miley Cyrus-Dolly Parton duet with 'rainbow' in title

Students at Heyer Elementary School in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, were set to perform a 2017 duet by Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton, until school administration asked fors its removal from the concert because its lyrics 'could be deemed controversial.'

Melissa Tempel's first grade class at Heyer Elementary School in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, has spent weeks preparing for its upcoming spring concert.

Tempel and her co-teacher, dual-language instructors at the school, wanted the concert to have a theme of world unity and peace. Among the songs they selected: "It's a Small World," sung in Spanish, and "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles.

Students were also set to perform "Rainbowland," a 2017 duet by Miley Cyrus and her godmother, Dolly Parton, with lyrics that advocate for inclusion. Tempel started rehearsing with her students as soon as the song was suggested by another faculty member and approved by Tempel and her co-teacher. Her first graders, she said, need as much time as they can get to learn the songs by heart ahead of the concert, just before Mother's Day.

"My students loved it immediately," Tempel told CNN of her classroom's reaction to "Rainbowland."

But within one day of students learning the song, Tempel said that school administration asked her to remove "Rainbowland" from the concert. In a statement, the district said it called for the song to be removed because its lyrics "could be deemed controversial" according to a school board policy on controversial issues in the classroom.

"Wouldn't it be nice to live in paradise, where we're free to be exactly who we are," Cyrus and Parton sing. "Living in a Rainbowland, where you and I go hand in hand. Oh, I'd be lying if I said this was fine, all the hurt and the hate going on here."

Representatives for Cyrus and Parton did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment.