Education

Eight-year-old: ‘I’m a girl;’ Christian school says otherwise

Katie Callahan Contributor
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A Virginia Christian school pushed to remove eight-year-old Sunnie Kahle after stating in a letter that her appearance doesn’t follow the school’s “biblical standards,” ABC13 reports.

Kahle’s grandparents, Doris and Carroll Thompson, received a letter from the K-8 Timberlake Christian School principal. The letter said that Kahle would be refused enrollment the following year for “condoning sexual immorality, practicing a homosexual lifestyle or alternative gender identity,” ABC13 reports.

Students have been confused over Kahle’s gender because of her short hair and tomboyish style, according to the letter, and administrators thus can decide that, despite her being a good student, “things disturbed the classroom environment.”

“We believe that unless Sunnie as well as her family clearly understand that God has made her female and her dress and behavior need to follow suit with her God-ordained identity, that TCS is not the best place for her future education,” the letter read.

Administrators stand by their letter and assert that they only asked that Kahle follow the guidelines expected from all students. The Thompsons have since transferred Kahle to public school.

“How do you tell a child when she wants to wear pants, a shirt, and go out and play in the mud and so forth, how do you tell her, no you can’t, you’ve got to wear a pink bow in your hair, and you’ve got to let your hair grow out long, how do you do that? I can’t do that,” said Doris Thompson to ABC13.