 All right, here we go All right live on the metal voice Alan for the first time ever. We have a principal. Yes At least at least there are knowing and you know what? I feel like I might make some grammatical mistakes And I feel like I'm being judged in a sense. Yeah grammatical Jim by the way It starts already Sharon Burns former principal of Eden High School Retired now Thank you for joining. Thank you for joining Thanks for a piece of persecuted heavy metal fans throughout the world. I Think this is the first time it correct. Am I correct me if I'm wrong? This is the first time you've made a statement Is this is the first time exclusive exclusive is I just retired in June and June 30th was my retirement date and I've had a lot of people reach out to me and I thought Let's reach out back to a couple of people and you're at the top of my list Jimmy So it's nice. Nice to be here. Thanks for having me. There we go. Sharon I reached out to you a year ago. Maybe eight months ago, right? Yeah, and I get it and I get it And I get it, you know, you're part of the public Let the dust settle you can't say nothing. They're muzzling you up as Alan said heavy metal persecution, right? Right. All right. Let me give the backstory here fast fast. So everybody is up to speed Okay, back in October 2021 Sharon burns the print then principal of Eden High School in St. Catherine's, Ontario, Canada Posted it on her Instagram her own personal Instagram for my understanding Picture of you and your husband, right at the back of the car and I'll show the picture after and then there was also another picture Which was the controversy was Eddie the mascot of our Eddie the mascot of Iron Maiden with the 666 written in the hands Oh my god, after that the her in your Instagram blew up Petition by some of the parents concerned parents to transfer you or remove you from your position Not to fire you just to remove you to another To remove you to another school because you did not live up to their sort of standards You shall be removed 553 signatures were collected and then there was a counter a counter Alan a counter petition 20,000 students and friends and the community and people from all around the world signed it to keep you because they said you Are a great teacher a great principal and they wanted to keep you there And I'm gonna be fair here sharing me and now are gonna be fair since we don't have the other side here We'll try to be very objective. I'm not trying to yes, of course And we're and I'm still sort from signing 15,000 times And to be fair Oh My god, somebody can is that Ken your husband? No, Rob. Okay. So anyway, somebody's trying to I'm gonna somebody's trying to jump on but I don't Just to jump on they're not jumping on nobody jumping Okay, so I I've been to St. Catherine's I actually bought my copy of HDC high voltage and vinyl in St. Catherine and I you know, I didn't see anybody burning witches back then and So let's let's just explain the community a little bit the lovely town of St. Catherine's and where you're from so The school Eden is a fabulous school It was a private Christian school until 1989 and then it became amalgamated with the board so with the public board and I think that I Think that a lot of parents had their parents go to Eden and It's it's been a very long-running school private Christian school in the Niagara region students can apply to go there from the entire Niagara region from Niagara Falls to Fort Erie to St. Catherine's so And they used to go when it was a private Christian school because of the Christian component to it But things changed when it became a public school and it had to become a public school for everybody So that's a bit of the history. There are a lot of people Students at Eden like I said who have many many siblings parents grandparents and uncles who have attended there for the Christian component But now it's just wide open And the Christian component and I can't pronounce it properly Mennonite Mennonite. Yeah, I have a trouble with that word out of Mennonite. It's a very complicated And to be fair to them We know they have this history of a Mennonite community and they attended there and they have this sort of culture that they built There's that's why they were very concerned correct Correct, but it was no longer part or remain focus of the curriculum since 89 Right, so it's not part of the curriculum whatsoever, but we still have which spiritual life center at the school and There are four volunteers who work there and students go to chapel and they go to life groups And it's a very well-attended and liked by many of the students So it's still a very vibrant part of what that school is And you yourself are a Mennonite, correct? You're sort of raised that way, right? I was raised that way. Yes Okay, all right, so we've confirmed all that we've confirmed the community We've confirmed yourself and and other and since the 89s in the 70s and 100 years ago There has been so many more different religions right that have come into play correct, right? right and our school has opened that up to everybody we Started a multi-faith prayer room a couple of years ago, so students who are practicing Islam can go and And have their prayers in the afternoon on Fridays as well So and that's in the same area as the Mennonite Chapel and it seems to be working quite Cohesively as it seems to be working well for everybody. So very accommodating and welcoming school and area Right, okay, but we've had to make some changes. I've been there for five years I just retired in June and there have there's been some changes because For example our logo still had a cross in it and we're a public school and we're open to everybody So we needed to make some things that didn't put the Christianity at the forefront So we removed the cross from the logo So change has been hard for several members of the community because it's it was their school It was their mothers and fathers school and now there's changes happening that looks as though We're trying to remove the Christian Christian component from the school That's not the case. What Eden is doing is Creating an atmosphere where everybody can see themselves on the halls and in the walls of that school Reflected right so they feel at home I'm just questioning is that part of provincial legislation as well where the cross has to be removed or is that the decision that was based on on local You know your fellows at the school. I was a school board decision. I know that It's different in Quebec, but here it's a public school. So you shouldn't really be promoting one religion over another Well, it's the same here in Quebec And I think the rest of Canada has taken also the fall suit, right? It's anything to do with public should be sort of, you know Secular right that's that's and but it does it doesn't mean you can't talk about religion You could just but you have to sort of be equal share to everyone, right? Because that's that's the world that we live in, right? It's it's a multi religious world. Yeah We can get get to the photo so so you know Tradition where you head out in the backyard take these types of photos or is that you know after you're burning Bibles? And you decide to take these photos or where was that taking place exactly? So it was a mini Cooper rally I have a mini Cooper. It's kind of new to me and the dealer puts You know host this rally where a hundred mini Cooper's just line up in a row and we drive from one destination to the other So we drove to Niagara Falls and we do an event there We did the world pool jet boats up and down the Niagara River We drove for a few other places and my husband said hey There's a costume, you know, you can dress up your cars and there's prizes for cars So I said don't go ahead and dress up the car So he dressed up with the Iron Maiden paraphernalia some of what you see behind me and Right exactly so it was an easy costume for the car I guess and I Have I had an Instagram and a Twitter account that Was called at Eden principle because it was me and it was my account and I was trying to personalize a Lot of the events at the school and show them that I'm a principal and I you can reach out to me You can connect with me you can DM me and I'll answer your questions about if tomorrow's a non uniform day The week before the rally I had met a bunch of students asked them what they were listening to and they were telling me metal I said so I listen to metal too. So we had a bit of a conversation. So it's not unusual for me to put up a personal photo To continue to connect with students and that's the purpose of the photo that I put up Relatable you want to be relatable. Let's talk about the school year. Maybe new students are coming in and Great idea. So When you go back the next day they say oh Mrs. Burns you listen to made and I listen to made into it's like Right, and then we just go about our day of learning Okay, just but here's the here's where the trouble began, right? So, okay, there's one picture of you and your husband with you know The trunk open of the car with the maiden picture says our and that's like that's behind Alan That's the same flag in the picture. Now, there's a little Eddie the little Eddie guy in back you now I'm showing the picture that said Eddie in the heart 666 and that was the problem, correct, right? That's right over kill Yeah, well definitely overkill and if I could Would not have posted that I Think it Rob made that my husband made that just his fault Eddie loves Many coopers and he threw this 666 in the heart and I knew that it's a biblical Has biblical connotations religious connotations I kind of knew that just for the year But I didn't even think about it when we went and when I posted the picture I just thought oh, that's a good picture of Eddie and there's a good picture of me and my husband I'll just throw those up on Instagram and go about my day Unbeknownst to you behind the scenes Exactly unbeknownst to me I go about my day and at one point I have three teenage daughters and at one point they reach out to me or come out to me and say mom You really have to look at your Instagram like what what did I so I look at it and it the comments under it have blown up So I turned off commenting. I thought okay, help me figure out what I did wrong here And I realized it was the post of the 666 in a school where We were having this shift from What they were used to from the private Christian school to amalgamating with the born and I know that was 1989 But still it takes a long time for good change to happen and I get all that so I realized yeah, okay I I was I was at the At one end insensitive and at the other end offensive I get it so I took the post down Okay, but let's go back one step. Were there any problems with you and The teach and the parents prior to this picture of Iron Maiden were there any petitions Against you Were there any sort of oh, there's a woman in charge. We're not we don't dig that nothing like that So just to confirm that no none of that There were some questions about some of the changes that we were making to the school for example the logo and some of the changes around How the spiritual life center communicated with the students in the building Changes that needed to happen and there were some concerns from parents about those changes and the way we're going about them I guess but nothing to have me removed for example, okay Underlying sentiment nobody likes change we understand that so there's a little underlining sentiment And this was kind of like the spark to set off the powder cake that one little photo with the heart Especially specifically the heart with the six exactly now. I mean, let's say for example you wrote 667 Do you think the parents would have lost it? I think that I don't know that I don't know I do think that some people associate still heavy metal with Satanic practices. I know that's an extreme but I Think that they might have thought it was insensitive to have this, you know, this Eddie It is skull and muscles and all of that For a principle and I understand that Like I get I'm trying to pick this apart here. Okay. I get the 666 the Eddie I don't get and I don't get the iron maiden. So there's three things here, right? Right, I mean if you want to really go into deep discussion about 666 They found the oldest manuscript they found in the Bible was actually 616. It wasn't even 666 So this whole number and this business of this number of being, you know, some sort of satanic Yes, there's that connotation, but the reality is 666 really doesn't mean anything because a lot of people have said that this is just a numerical number of Nero who was the sort of governor or whatever of Roman Empire at the time, right? So Was it was it the may are made in was it the Eddie mascot or was it the number that people had most defense with? If you had a picture of Barry give holding this 667 the house next door or across the street Okay. Yeah, now it was the number combined with the fact that they felt like I was trying to reduce Christianity in the school Okay, all right. All right. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. I mean we had the same, you know I made it had the same backlash in 82 when they released the album in North America You think we've progressed by on that point now and it's a you know, the West Memphis three in the early 90s I mean, they were you know a conservative community and Memphis and you know, basically the gist of it was three heavy metal guys got arrested because you know They got to research Satan worshippers and they they have to be responsible with killing these other children and you know Even evidence of Stephen King novels prove that you are Satanist So, you know, we're hoping to be way past that now But I can understand now the bit more for the story where there's this underlying Sensitivity like you said the community. Yeah, yeah, and I get it, too Also, if there was some parents who are taxpayers in a public institution, they want, you know, a fair representation Of who leads their community, but to me it sounds like it was an innocent mistake and you know, it you know, we shouldn't bring out, you know the tar The feathers, right? Up until the only kind of personal things I would post are of my chickens. I have a chicken Ozzie bit off a head off a chicken What are vegan tweets there could have happened drinking lady So posting my musical interest was the first time I've done that and the last Last yeah, okay Well again just to confirm that you were when did you take down the post when you saw the petition from the parents? Or was it prior to that prior to that it was the same day It was I think it was a Sunday and it was when my kids say mom look at your Instagram It's blowing up and I decided yeah, okay. Let's just delete the whole post and And maybe this all be over tomorrow. So okay, that's what that's what I like to get to Monday morning now You're watching the school. Yes And they're waiting with handcuffs or No, it was it was good and quiet. He walked into school and I was worried. Oh Oh Everybody's looking at me and everybody's having an opinion or a judgment on me. So it was uncomfortable, but It was fine. It was more or less business as usual at school and I'm so thankful for that I'm thankful for that a community of students who You know didn't get on a bandwagon or didn't want to turn feather me the kids were amazing and they got on with business All right, let's talk about constitution here. So the constitution says the government has no right to intervene with Freedom of speech. This is a public public school So what I assume that sort of bleeds into your constitutional right working for the government, correct? Yes, well, this was on your personal time. The list can we can we you know, let's not forget that Personal time but under the name at Eden principle. That's the problem. That's the problem, right? It was just Sharon's Instagram it'd be completely different Somebody might have picked up on it if a parent might have seen it and had an issue with it But it was under at Eden principle Are you talking about Jim what constitution about the Canadian Constitution here the Canadian Constitution because we can't Or hello, sir anymore here in Canada, right? Well, they've kind of scrapped it over here again But I think you're a little behind the times Jim, but in theory in theory it should have worked like that Okay, so there was no kickback from the students when you walk in And then a petition rumors of or you're well aware that there's a petition underway They're petitioned by that point and then and the phone calls were happening from concerned families and the press and My boss Like what's going on over there Sharon? It's like oops My phone's been ringing off the hook. It's usually pretty quiet. I can get a good nap in and now I gotta call Sharon What's going on? Did you get any did you get any messages like, you know, cult messages? Hey Sharon, you know, you want to join the cult and No, nothing like that helping this meeting next Tuesday Okay, so Again, establishing the timeline here You post the picture you take down at the picture out of good conscience, right? However, you go back to school everybody's whispering. There she is. There she is And then there's this petition from concerned parents About 500 people right 500 parents and you know, and to be fair, you know, they have a right to also, you know To say but to get you transferred over a little mistake like that. I don't think that's the end of the world Yeah, and to be fair Change.org you anybody in the world can have a vote on a poll on change.org So I'm not even convinced it was 500 parents 500 people How many people in that school connected to Eden? So it could be globally somebody on the other side of the world. So yeah, I don't like heavy metal I'm down on this so you know And you know and I'll and and I'll even share we're all the same age, uh, you know You're younger than us. Sorry Thank you. I don't think you're right, but thank you Um, you know the prmc, you know, they're they're you know Back in the day and you know, they're trying to stop heavy metal and there's always somebody trying to stop heavy metal Now when was talking about that before I mean why stop a form of music? Why start stop artistic, uh, you know expression? Sure, it's a little do me and darky. But is it any different than a horror movie? I don't think you're trying to stop the music They were trying to stop the Eden principle from taking more away from Uh from e from the school from the christian opponent that some students can uh can You know go to if they're interested in I got you. That's that's a fair statement. That's at least an offensive and I get it. Okay. Okay, so This explodes Globally, you know, it's a hot topic wake up one that monday morning probably or Tuesday morning We all see this on the internet and we're basically talking about 500 clicks right So why would this be such a big story? I think it goes back to jimmy's last question is Well, you know, somebody's trying to pursue the heavy metal fan I think is what people are taking away from this And you know, you've explained that that's not necessarily the case It's not necessarily the case. So then the counter petition started and that was started by a student I didn't know who it was for a long time and then I learned out who it is and thank you for that That was pretty cool. Thanks steve harris Yeah It was uh and And when the counter petition started it talked about oh, she's a good principal, you know, don't worry about that She's not a satanist all school over here. It's a great school. We're really really learning a lot and we're having a great time and that really picked up throughout The global community But not everybody could have the whole story and realize where the school was where it's come from the insensitivity in the 666 post So it just looked like satanic panic. Let's counter that with my vote. Here you go, Sharon I remember it was huge. I remember like, you know, people just read the headlines and of course some of the headlines were misleading You know heavy metal principal gets persecuted and you know, heavy metal principal is not allowed to like our main in But the reality is and I understand the parents and I understand the school I mean, you even understand it that you're leading a school There's got to be some sort of uh A correct protocol, we'll say, right? Yeah And that's cool, but I'm happy that we're talking to you About this because it's a cool story either either way, right? No, I'm glad that the counter petition, you know started with Your capacity as a principal, right? If let's not get rid of somebody if they're doing a good job And if the students think you're doing a good job, I mean, that's the ones that really count at the end of the day, right? That's that's your constituency as we could say And it was still super quiet at school. Even though the petition got up to 24 000 votes It was quiet at school But both families parents staff and students were supportive of me in ways that were quiet For, you know, we had a football game a bunch of parents wore iron main shirts to the football game to support their kids To wear uniform schools students would wear iron made and under their shirt and just show me that they you know They stand in solidarity or they give me the irons as we're walking down the hall So there was a lot of really great support from the kids and from the community both parents staff students alike And the cheerleaders all got any tattoos on their shoulders. So That was a nice touch as well. Actually, I'm kind of curious. Do you prefer the paul diano era or the brobruz dickinson era? Lay there or the play which which do you prefer the first two army nom's are later on? Yeah, I like Bruce Dickinson. Okay Alan too is Bruce Dickinson a more paul diano. So it's okay. Just just so we're all clear all right And you also had dango jones Canadian artist That's right to you and he said, you know what? I support you fully come to my show. Did you go see him? Did you meet with him? I did? Oh, you tell you uh It was a great show actually and he told me he had my back and he experiences I think many artists anybody in the public eye experiences challenges with communities that don't understand this so he understood and Gave me a cool little souvenir that um I think it was back correctly that he got from where rob We've got to dig through the archives Hey rob. How you doing here's the trouble there is there's the trouble maker Where'd you poke your head in there? It's all because of you it's all because of you you started all this It's my fault. Yes. That's what I say every day of my life buddy. You're an instigator 24 seven Let's take a look at that. Let's take a what is that? It's like a single. Oh rainmaker. Okay. Yeah rain and it's signed by uh Bruce Dickinson as well. So that's what dango jones gave me which was pretty cool Like that's what I wanted to ask you that that anybody from maiden's camp reach out to you or say hey We've got your back or um the photographer the official photographer Sent me an email. Actually, he didn't even send me an email. He sent me a big poster Was that back here? Yeah, he'll take it off the wall and bring it in And it just showed up in the mail and I didn't even know about it And this it's amazing poster of Bruce at the one of the concerts that we had gone to and we had a similar picture from where we Stood right in front of the stage So we went and got it framed. I'll bring it in. Oh, yeah, I'll get out of the way here All right, look at that. Oh, yeah good photo. Wow. Wow. Look at that So that's John McMurtry took that and uh I think he's traveling with maiden to um Hamilton when they come this fall in October. So he's reached out. So he's gonna try to get me in the trooper room, which sounds pretty cool Yeah, yeah, so thanks John. If you're listening that'd be pretty cool posters put to good use Any any correlation between all this brew ha ha and your retirement? No, no, I could have retired december 2020 Uh before the event I could have retired during or after the event but um I it was the pandemic and I wanted to stick it through for the kids I wanted to have a sense of normalcy back for everybody We had the extracurriculars come back last year and uh, it was a really amazing way to go out So I went out. I retired on my own terms, but that's a good question. I get asked that one a lot, Alan Okay, would you do it again? If you can if you had a if you had a DeLorean and you could travel back in time Well, she wouldn't be at an Audi Rowdy Audi rally then if you had a DeLorean Well, I would just I'm just saying a DeLorean just for traveling purposes back in time Would you if you could go back in time, would you post Eddie 666 again? No Would you post the iron maiden with you and your husband just sort of like would you post that picture? Uh Probably Yeah, it's not on the same on the same account That you know the principal's a metal fan a woman principal, you know in her whatever decade I'm in is a metal fan I think that that's an unusual thing for principal and High school so if it helps to connect with a couple more kids who feel like they can come and chat with me If they're having a problem I would but I definitely would not do Eddie holding 666 I wouldn't do anything with that number anymore Yeah, so since then my iron principal since I retired I've retired the twitter and the instagram for at Eden principal as well And I've just started my own and it's super small and I'm not even sure I'm kind of done with posting for a while So I'm enjoying just scrolling and looking at everybody else for a while So will you continue to listen to the song number of the beast by Iron Maiden? Of course That's the most important Exactly Um, but in a way, you know, you kind of had a cool story And in a way you got to sort of you know get a little more a peek into the Iron Maiden world and Danco Jones and it just you know, it's Definitely, it wasn't like you did something bad. You went on a shooting rampage or you hurt somebody you didn't do anything You just an innocent little mistake and and Jimmy that's why I wanted to talk to you about this because Um, I want the bigger perspective to be had by people to understand that it's just not people thinking that I'm terrible because I listened to Iron Maiden there's a bigger story to it and My parents are great parents. The kids are great parents are not mine anymore. I'm gone but You know, it's a great community And they weren't just out to get me willy-nilly. There's a history. There are things going on and it was Bad timing and a bad decision on my part. It had nothing to do with the timing It was a bad decision a poor decision on my part to post it unthinkingly. I should have thought I should have known better I'm working in that school for five years. I should have been aware of the sensitivities around Something like that something like the number I think the most So I've lesson learned wouldn't do it again, but I'll still continue to enjoy Iron Maiden and now I get to Meet people like Alan and Jimmy. I think it's pretty awesome. I think so too. And the enrollment at the school go up or down That's what I want to go. I want to go to the Iron Maiden school We can wear our shirts Oh, we probably went online after that. There was probably another wave I'll go. I'm gonna go to the it's considered the Iron Maiden school now, right? No, I want to push it that far now. They're gonna get me started petition against us No, my friend Iron Maiden principal or imp for short, but Yeah, I'm just sharing and in a way, you know, when the principal likes Iron Maiden, do the students get turned off of Iron Maiden? No, because my mother liked Iron Maiden. I don't know if I'd liked Iron Maiden about the time Just saying No, I don't think so I think that's the thing about building a community and building a relationship with students and having them Know a little bit about you that was I didn't know what Iron Maiden know that I have chickens I think that's cool because they might have chickens too, right? So I just put out a lot of different ways for students to connect and to feel at home in this school and feel like Even though it's a uniform school, which is unusual in my district Um, and it has this Christian history. You can still be yourself here Good, good. Good. All right, Alan. Should we end off with the the best Iron Maiden songs or maybe What's Sharon's favorite? Let's just go with Sharon's favorite. Well, I like wrath child That's paul diano Good pick, right? They made our top 10 with this the flight of ikaris. There you go Fly on your way like an eagle. Yeah, exactly Go ahead. Anything else the six and six and never the beast What are you guys like? Oh boy, we get the whole discography I love this kevin writes. So people are writing in the chat as we speak. It's just i'm missing to you That's why the principle of the beast. I like that. I like that The principle Here's lucha saying I got shit for having along here when I was in high school Tom is saying I remember I wasn't allowed into a party because of my love for metal and that what I wore But that all ended when people realized that was a good at boxing and fighting. Okay, that's cool People like, you know, I'm just gonna look at these comments here if anybody else has any questions in the final minutes our interview Jimmy is very surgical here when I was talking about six six six and six one six So six one six the number the beast really just remember that Okay, okay. All right. I'm not changing the song strip It's still rhyme six one six the number. Okay. Um And if anybody else has any questions Tony saying I'm black metalhead. I win. I'm a black metalhead. So I guess he's referring to I'm assuming Tony You're referring to your color of skin because I know Tony That's cool. Everybody's inclusive. Everybody is welcome to be a metalhead, correct Absolutely. No, no, and again, I think we've got to go back to, you know We're happy to have Sharon on the show to clarify that it was an underlying issues and things that were sensitive topics Happening that we weren't aware of with with the clickbait that was going on and I thank you for for sharing that and Expanding upon that so we know that it's it was a bit of a sensitive time for the for the school and the posting. So You know, I'm trying to think of is there anything Schoolastically I need to ask her before, uh, you know, we we let her go like there. They are there Either or either Neither nor either or Why is there a cave before no? Is it no or is it no Or ganat or nat Yeah What is the what is a clause? What is I could never figure it out. They just all these sentences. This is a clause like what the freak is a clause Piece of a sentence There you go. See these are the answers we need Alan. These are the answers we need All right on that note. Thank you so much Sharon. You're welcome to come back anytime if you ever want to discuss metal with us Awesome. Yeah, we have we should give a top 10 show a top 10 show happening with sherry. Yes. I think I want to have Sharon I'll get Rob. Who knows a lot about it too Absolutely. There we go. Rob the troublemaker will call him. You got it. All right. Have yourself a wonderful day. Rob Thank you. Have yourself a wonderful day Sharon. It's been a real pleasure. Thank you very much Very nice to meet you both. Thank you for having me on Rock on everybody