Watertown Board May Stop School Band From Playing Piece with LGBTQ+ Ties

M. Johnson (CC-BY)

Watertown High School band students have spent months preparing for their May 18 spring concert. But a piece of music will likely be struck from their set list over its history.

The Watertown Wind Symphony will learn on May 12 during a special school board meeting if they will be allowed to perform “A Mother of A Revolution.”

The piece was composed in 2019 by Omar Thomas for contemporary wind ensembles and does not have lyrics. But Thomas dedicated the work to transgender activist Marsha Johnson, a key figure in the 1969 Stonewall uprising against police raids in New York.

This week, the board’s Educational Services Committee signaled they were in favor of pulling the piece.

The full school board will meet six days before the students’ spring concert, despite band director Reid LaDew following the district’s “controversial issues policy.”

That policy, created in September 2025, requires teachers to “provide effective notice to parents in advance of controversial issues being instructed in the classroom.”

In October, LaDew sent a note home to parents letting them know the class would begin studying and preparing  “A Mother of A Revolution.”

“The purpose behind studying Mother of a Revolution is not to provoke controversy, but to deepen students’ understanding of how music reflects the diverse experiences of humanity,” LaDew wrote. “Engaging with this piece helps foster empathy, cultural awareness, and respect for the stories and struggles that shape our shared history.”

LaDew said he also chose the piece because it is musically complex and would challenge students who have been in band for many years.

When the letter was sent to parents, three families initially opted out of performing the piece. But eventually, only one student decided not to perform “A Mother of A Revolution.”

When questioned by the Educational Services Committee this week, LaDew repeated what he told parents — that his job as a teacher is to connect the music to the students’ other subjects.

“That’s why we find that students that participate in music score higher on their standardized tests,” LaDew said. “Because they are using all of that information they’ve learned from all of their other studies in one spot at one time.”

Committee member Christina DeGrave said the subject should be taught in history class.

“When it comes to music, it should be uplifting and celebratory,” DeGrave said.

Board Vice President Sam Ouweneel said even though LaDew followed policy, the piece should be pulled.

“Having a controversial issues policy does not preclude certain material from being inappropriate for a public school,” Ouweneel said. “My concern with this piece, in particular, is that it’s described specifically as a celebration of Marsha Johnson, who was a cross dressing prostitute who threw a brick at a police officer.”

DeWayne Roberson was the Watertown School District’s band director until 2015. He worked with LaRue and said the people questioning his choice to have students play “A Mother of A Revolution” don’t have enough information.

Roberson has served as an adjudicator of state and national music festivals for 40 years. He says the piece is routinely on festival lists, including the Wisconsin School Music Association Festival.

“I would have loved to have a chance to conduct it,” Roberson said. “I believe in a lot of cases, the people who are most concerned about this are concerned out of ignorance and they’re using the rhetoric of today’s politics to make their decisions.”

Watertown parent David Byrne’s three sons graduated from the high school and all went through the band program with LaDew.

His last son graduated last year.

Byrne said he is “appalled” by the the school board’s actions, saying they are creating controversy instead of focusing on education.

“It’s a huge distraction from some critical issues going on in the school in our school district,” Byrne said. “They have created all of this unnecessary work for teachers with this controversial issues policy but at the heart of it it’s just trying to prevent and penalize anything linked to the LGBTQ community.”

LaDew questioned board members about why they were pulling the song now, so close to the spring concert.

The committee said they were unaware of it until now when parents and community members brought it to their attention.

LaDew told the board they need to tell his students that the music they had rehearsed for a year would not be performed.

“We will discuss further how that is communicated to students,” Ouweneel said.

Wisconsin school board considers pulling piece from spring band concert due to LGBTQ+ history ties was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.