Full Name: Edward Kelly
Mutant Power: N/A; Principal Kelly's a regular human.
Voice Actor: Dale Wilson (also the voice of Smokescreen in Transformers: Armada)
First Appearance: "Growing Pains"
Back Story: Edward took over as principal of Bayville High when Principal Darkholme (really Mystique) disappeared after the events of "The Cauldron". Soon after he assumed the position, he was witness to an attempt by the Brotherhood members to expose themselves as Mutants publicly to the school. Xavier managed to wipe everyone's mind of the incident- except Principal Kelly's. Although Kelly was now very nervous about the Mutants in his school that apparently no one else knew about, he didn't let the secret out after Xavier had wiped everyone else's mind- after all, who would believe him? He bore witness to a couple more incidents at the school- a gymnasium fire, a school break-in, a vicious blue beast on the loose, tyrannosauus demon creatures from another dimension- all of them directly or indirectly the cause of Mutants. As such, his hatred for them certainly boiled, and when Mutants were finally made public to the world, he was vocal in his stance against them, and still is. In fact, he was running for Mayor of Bayville on his Anti-Mutant platform when the series ended. I wonder if the writers planned on him winning or not... (My guess is that they planned on him winning, as they would've gotten a few good episodes out of it.)
Personality: Kelly is a surprisingly "gray" character, one that you don't find very many of in today's "kids' shows". On one hand, you can certainly understand his hatred towards Mutants. They've caused quite a bit of damage to the school and its surrounding area, whether it was intentional or not. Deep down, you figure he's at least kind of a nice guy- he just wants what's best for his "normal" kids, and that is for the Mutant kids to leave the school. And he's very vocal in his stance, practically seething with hatred for the Mutants, and not moderating his position under pressue, to his credit. On the other hand, he doesn't seem to understand that some of the Mutants- namely, the X-Men- want to use their powers for good, not blowin' stuff up. He's also very snappy with his Mutant students, now that they've been exposed. He's even done some plotting of his own to get the Mutants out of his school- which, of course, haven't worked yet. So, he's a principal of a school in which he's forced to deal with uber-powerful students. Not a position I'd like to be in, let me tell ya... As I said before, though, he's trying to get in a position where he can DO something about this by running for Mayor of Bayville.
Final Reflections: There WAS an "old" version of Principal Kelly, but he was Senator Kelly, and his full name was Robert Kelly, not Edward Kelly. They both had similar personalities, though, and look much the same, which is why I think that, for all intents and purposes, they're the same character. However, I think that good ol' Principal Kelly was the better character of the two, as he wasn't in a high enough position to really DO anything about the Mutants. And it was admittedly entertaining to watch him squirm now and then.