An Ontario high school principal is at the heart of two duelling petitions surrounding her love for Iron Maiden and posts that have been called "satanic."
On Tuesday, October 4, a group of people claiming to be parents of students at Eden High School in St. Catharines, Ontario, published a petition calling for the immediate transfer of Principal Sharon Burns and accusing her of having an "allegiance to Satanic practices."
"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," the petition reads, "where all the students can see them under @edenprincipal (not her personal account)."
"Please replace her 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."
The photos in question both seem to have been deleted from Burns' Instagram but screenshots of the photo were added to the petition; one appears to show Burns in front of some Iron Maiden flags and wearing a band shirt, while the other shows a hand-drawn heart with "666" inside.
Eddie is the mascot of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden, who released a concert film named Flight 666 back in 2009.
But on the same day that the call for Burns to be transferred popped up, another petition was started to keep the principal around. That one has exploded in popularity, with over 13,000 signatures at the time of writing.
"It is ridiculous that a couple of parents only judge her role as a principal only based on an Instagram post," the second petition says. "Eden High School is a public school. Not a Christian school [...] She spreads nothing but love and kindness, and is probably one of the best and most enthusiastic principals the school has ever had."
In their own update, the original group maintains that the Iron Maiden photos have nothing to do with their petition.
"This petition is NOT about Sharon Burns' love for Iron Maiden," it reads. "This petition is about a principal of a school openly displaying her OWN handmade sign with the 666 clearly displayed on it."
Burns — whose Twitter bio says that she is "fuelled by metal and ska" — has even received support from Karrie Porter, a city councillor in St. Catharines, and PUP, Canadian punk royalty, who chimed in on Twitter to say she's doing great work.
"Hey [St. Catharines]," the band wrote on Twitter. "Get your shit together."
Narcity reached out to the District School Board of Niagara for comment but did not immediately hear back before publishing.