Principal Loses Job After Welcoming Kindergarteners Back To School With A Pole Dancer

Most schools around the world hold some kind of back to school events like an assembly or a few motivational words from the principal, but no school has ever had an opening ceremony quite like Xinshahui Kindergarten in Shenzhen, China.

This school, where the average age of students is below 6-years-old, decided the best way to welcome students would be with a pole dance performance.

While many parents who attended the event had no problem with pole dancing in general, they were absolutely horrified to see the performers at a kindergarten!

Since the incident occurred, videos of the performance have gone viral, with many parents and other netizens chiming in their displeasure with the whole situation.

• “I really don’t want to know what the headmaster was thinking.”

• “This type of dancing is not suitable for a kindergarten.”

• “The principal hung up on my wife when she called after saying it was ‘international and good exercise’… okay, yeah for adults maybe, but not 3-6 year old kids.”

• “Pole dancing at a school welcome ceremony? How can I trust my children with them? I’m going to pull my kid out and ask for a refund.”

Eventually, all the noise on the web made its way to the local Bao’an Education Bureau who decided they really needed to investigate the matter.

So before our kids got out of kindergarten for the summer, there was 10 days of military "activities" and displays of machine guns and mortars at the door; now the principal has welcomed them back with a strip pole dance on the flagpole bearing the PRC flag. She's gone nuts. pic.twitter.com/BJr4UI6Oq3

— Michael Standaert (@mstandaert) September 3, 2018

During this investigation, the principal revealed the reason behind the performance was to get the kids to learn more about dance varieties and tried to explain that she didn’t see it as an issue with the children.

“Children are quite simple, they wouldn’t think such complicated thoughts about this. They’d just think that it’s amazing for someone to be able to fly on a pole like that.”

— Lai Rong, Principal

Despite her thoughts on the subject, the Bureau ultimately decided that the show was highly inappropriate. The school was told they needed to give an official apology and the principal was fired.

But before she stepped down from her position, Lai Rong expressed her own apologies.

“I thought inviting professional dancers to the kindergarten to perform for the parents would liven up the mood for the students’ first day back to school. I did not think through the contents of the performance. It was a very terrible viewing experience for the kids and parents. For that, I sincerely apologize.”

— Lai Rong, Principal