‘By no means was I intentionally being racist’: Iowa child services worker speaks out after firing

CHARLOTTE, Iowa (IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – A child-services worker alleges she was fired from her job and accused of racist behavior after playing “cowboys and Indians” with the children in her care.

State records indicate that in 2025, Lisa Bartels of Charlotte worked with autistic children on their social and behavioral skills while employed as a registered behavior technician for Beyond Behavior Applied Behavior Analysis, an organization that provides support services for families throughout Iowa.

The records indicate that on July 3, 2025, Bartels was disciplined for playing the game “cowboys and Indians” with the children at Beyond Behavior. On Aug. 14, 2025, Bartels was allegedly disciplined a second time, in that instance for singing the nursery rhyme “One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians” with the children.

According to Bartels, her superiors at Beyond Behavior considered the game and the nursery rhyme to be “racist” in nature, presumably because the word “Indian” was being used to describe Native Americans.

On Oct. 13, 2025, Bartels was having a private conversation with a co-worker about their pets when she referred to her own dog as “retarded.” An employee allegedly complained to management about Bartels’ use of the word, and Bartels was fired two days later for violating the organization’s code of conduct by using unprofessional language.

Bartels applied for unemployment benefits, which led to a Feb. 3, 2026, hearing before Administrative Law Judge Stephanie Adkisson.

In a recent ruling, Adkisson concluded Bartels was disqualified from collecting benefits due to job-related misconduct, in part for having “used an offensive word” in describing her dog.

“Given the type of work she performed, she knew or should have known that the use of the word is unacceptable,” Adkisson stated in her ruling. “The fact that (she) did not use the word to refer to a person does not change that fact that she should have been aware it was a word that others would find offensive.”

Adkisson observed that Bartels “had received two prior warnings regarding using offensive words. (Bartels) knew she needed to be aware of her use of language and that her job was in jeopardy. Despite these warnings, (she) continued to engage in the use of offensive language.”

Bartels said Wednesday her actions last summer weren’t motivated by racism.

“By no means was I intentionally being racist,” she said. “My daughter has American Indian blood running through her. Her father was part American Indian and the man I’m dating now is American Indian. He has a tattoo of Sitting Bull on his right arm.”

Describing herself as a Christian conservative, she said that after the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last fall, she wore red to work in honor of Kirk, but added that she “would not dare share that with my place of employment for fear of being reprimanded for it.”

No one from Beyond Behavior participated in Bartels’ unemployment hearing, and Alyssa Hennings, the organization’s CEO, declined to comment on the case Wednesday. She referred the Iowa Capital Dispatch to the organization’s human resources department. No one who identified themselves as being from the department responded to the news organization’s inquiry Wednesday afternoon.

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