Parents Try To Get School Principal Fired For Listening To Iron Maiden

Parents Try To Get School Principal Fired For Listening To Iron Maiden EMI Records

A group of high school students has rallied behind their principal after their parents tried to have the administrator removed from her position because of her taste in music. Mrs. Sharon Burns serves as the principal at Eden High School in St. Catharine’s, Ontario, but many of the students’ parents took umbrage with Burns admitting on her Instagram profile that she listens to Iron Maiden and tried to get her fired because of it. What the hell?

  1. The parents started a petition to get Burns fired. They were so serious about believing her love of Iron Miaden made her unsuitable for the position of school principal that they launched a Change.org petition to get her out. “As concerned parents with impressionable children at Eden High School in St. Catharines, Ontario, we are deeply disturbed that the principal assigned to the school blatantly showed Satanic symbols and her allegiance to Satanic practices on her public social media platforms where all the students can see them under @edenprincipal (not her personal account),” the now-deleted campaign stated. “Our school is based on inclusion, and openly displaying Satanic symbols (on a public social media platform) that directly goes against the principles of the vast majority of families who represent the school, is not inclusive. As parents, we are demanding her transfer to another school.”
  2. Apparently, liking metal makes you a person devoid of values. The parents who started the petition further stated that they wanted Burns to be replaced with “another principal who aligns with the values of the families at Eden and will not sabotage the teaching or upholding of those values and will not try to introduce impressionable students to Satanic practices or symbolism.” Yikes. This is all because of a photo of Burns giving the “devil horns” and displaying a “Trooper Eddie” flag.
  3. The students then decided to start their own petition. And incidentally, theirs was way more successful. In their own Change.org campaign, the students acknowledge the parents’ petition and point out how ludicrous it is. “It is ridiculous that a couple of parents only judge her role as a principal only based on an Instagram post. (About liking the band Iron Maiden. That’s it.) Eden High School is a public school. Not a Christian school. If you somehow don’t like the principal of your child, grandchild, relative etc.’s school, then send them to another one,” it reads. “The principal has made so many efforts to remind students that Eden is a diverse place. She has even turned a whole room into a prayer room for students who are practicing religions other than Christianity, like practicing Islam. She has made Eden a safe space for so many people. She spreads nothing but love and kindness, and is probably one of the best and most enthusiastic principals the school has ever had. If you would like to bring some light to this whole petition, please consider signing!”
  4. In the end, the parents were forced to abandon their petition. They rescinded it, likely out of humiliation given that the students got nearly 21,000 signatures on their petition and the parents barely had any. Get a life, parents!
Jennifer has been the managing editor of Bolde since its launch in 2014. Before that, she was the founding editor of HelloGiggles and also worked as an entertainment writer for Bustle and Digital Spy. Her work has been published in Bon Appetit, Decider, Vanity Fair, The New York TImes, and many more.