Parents group outraged that Phoenix school played ‘Pink Pony Club’

There’s a new hit song in right-wing Valley circles. It goes something like this:

God, what have you done? 
You played “Pink Pony Club”
In my kid’s music class, oh mama

That’s the refrain some easily upset Valley parents are allegedly singing, says the conservative parent group Scottsdale Unites for Educational Integrity. According to the group, and a subsequent article in the right-leaning Arizona Daily Independent, some parents are livid that a sixth-grade music teacher at Desert Trails Elementary in North Phoenix played the 2023 Chappell Roan hit “Pink Pony Club” during music class.

Not the radio version, which every kid, no matter how sheltered, has heard ad nauseam for two years. A “Boomwhackers” version, which involves striking rainbow-colored percussion tubes together at the direction of a YouTube video. Think Guitar Hero but with, well, boomwhackers.

The incident, if you can call it that, happened in late November at the school, which is in the Paradise Valley Unified School District. (Which itself is, confusingly, not in Paradise Valley.) According to the U.S. News and World Report, more than 650 students attend the school from pre-K through 6th grade.

The Independent named the music teacher in question, but Phoenix New Times is withholding the teacher’s name to prevent them from being the target of harassment.

While the more well-adjusted among us might say, a la Chappell Roan, “they’re just having fun,” the conservative parent group clutched its pearls at preteens hearing a song inspired by a gay bar in Los Angeles that it said was “intended to promote Queer liberation & joy and to celebrate LGBTQ+ spaces as places of acceptance and empowerment.”

Acceptance and empowerment? What warped ideology will they push next?

The group and the Daily Independent also criticized Roan’s lyrics, such as “I heard that there’s a special place where boys and girls can be queens every single day” and “lovers in the bathroom and a line outside the door.” Plus, the Independent pointed out the song’s music video — which notably, was not shown in the music class — shows Roan dancing in a club, “gyrating on the pole of her microphone.”

The parents’ group asked parents to email the district’s governing board. Social media users called the situation “sickening,” and one called for the teacher to be arrested and “put on the sex offender registry.”

District spokesperson Mat Droge told New Times that the teacher was temporarily placed on administrative leave while the district investigated the matter, but after a “fairly short” investigation, the teacher is back in the classroom.

Parents continued to complain after they alleged that the elementary school put up more Pride posters around the school after the initial round of complaints, according to the Independent.

Droge said that school staff members are allowed to have “displays of personal expression” in their “personal workspace.” A teacher could have placed a Pride flag in their space, but that would be in accordance with the district’s policy. These displays aren’t allowed outside of that workspace, which includes hallways, common areas and general classroom spaces.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last two years, it’s impossible that you haven’t heard the upbeat, catchy tune of Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” from her smash debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.” 

The album blew up in early 2024 — propelled up by the success of the song “Good Luck, Babe!” — and much of that year was defined by Roan. “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” was Spotify’s fifth-most popular album in the U.S. last year, and Roan won Best New Artist at the Grammys this year. “Pink Pony Club” remains one of the most popular songs in the U.S., landing among the top 10 songs in the U.S this year on Spotify Wrapped.

And yes, “Pink Pony Club” does have slightly grown-up themes, but no more than most songs heard on the radio every day. And parents who want to protect their 11- and 12-year-olds from it probably would need to move to the moon to do so. Might be the kind of safe space these people so obviously need.

But if they can just get kids to stop saying “six-seven”…