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Community Rallies After Beloved Delaware School Principal Is Fired

DELAWARE (CBS) -- A Delaware community is rallying around a beloved school principal after she was abruptly let go from a nationally acclaimed school with apparently no reason given for the termination.

More than 2,000 signatures in just a few hours and almost every minute another person is signing their name to an online petition.

The petition demanded a Delaware Catholic school principal be reinstated.

Padua Academy petition
Credit: CBS 3

"What happened was wrong. She shouldn't have been fired so easily. Mrs. Mann is the definition of Padua," said Meghan Solge, a former Padua Academy student.

Solge started the petition Saturday, after finding out the school's principal was terminated abruptly on Friday afternoon.

That information came through a brief letter sent out by the reverend of the associated church, St. Anthony's.

The letter allegedly gave no reason for the abrupt termination of a principal that many say was a part of making this school one of the best in country.

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Something it boasts right outside the school building with signs that read, "This school has been ranked in the top 50 catholic schools in the country."

"I feel like she is the reason for the success," said Solge. "She made the school what it was, everyone wants her back."

"The letter we received, in my opinion it was a coward way to do it," Meghan's mother, Michel Solge, said. "You know, notified on a Friday afternoon, that she was no longer here with no reason."

Michele Solge also says the board of trustees did not know about the termination until parents did.

The board sent out a letter on Saturday afternoon saying it has not been given a reason for the principal's termination and is "very distressed."

"Parents, we are entitled to find out exactly what happened," said Michele Solge. "She's a staple here at Padua. My younger daughter, when she read that email on Friday, she was devastated, I mean she cried."

In addition to the petition, students and parents plan on taking action Monday morning.

They are planning to protest outside the school saying they will not go into the building until their principal is reinstated and can go in the building with them.

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