Miss Wisconsin, Laura Kaeppeler, talks to second-grade students at Blessed Sacrament School in Milwaukee Oct. 6, 2011. The 23-year-old Catholic was crowned Miss America 2012 at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas Jan. 14. (CNS photo/Ernie Mastroianni )

MILWAUKEE (CNS) -- All smiles, Susan Kaeppeler, fourth-grade teacher at Kenosha's St. Joseph Academy's lower campus, was greeted with the red-carpet treatment when she arrived to class Jan. 16 after a whirlwind weekend where she saw her oldest daughter, Laura, crowned Miss America.

The 23-year-old brunette, a Kenosha native, won the Miss America title at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas Jan. 14.

"Some of the parents decorated her classroom, and made some posters and put them up in the gym as the school day began," Pauline McTernan, St. Joseph development director, said in a telephone interview with the Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

"We rolled out a red carpet, presented her with a crown, bouquet of flowers, and balloons and led her to the gym as the school day began. The teachers all wore T-shirts that said, 'I teach with Miss America's Mom.' It was so exciting!"

Particularly touching to McTernan was Susan's impromptu speech as she reminded students what her daughter had said to them when she visited the school last October, as Miss Wisconsin, a title she won last June.