A Timberlake, Va. grandmother has said that her 8-year-old granddaughter was asked to leave a Christian school because she wasn’t acting like a girl.
Sunnie Kahle’s grandparents, who adopted her, decided to pull her out of Timberlake Christian School after they received a letter from the school, reports WSET-TV. They say the letter said Sunnie wasn’t living up to “biblical standards” and that she would not be welcomed next year. Sunnie is now going to public school.
Although she has short hair, loves to wear sneakers and enjoys sports, her grandmother, Doris Thompson, said that they think she is a normal girl. But school authorities disagreed, saying in the letter that students are confused about if Sunnie is a girl or boy. They even stressed that the Bible does not condone homosexuality or alternate gender identity.
“You're probably aware that Timberlake Christian School is a religious, Bible believing institution providing education in a distinctly Christian environment,” the letter read in part, Doris said. “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.”
According to Fox News, a school administrator did told the station that there were more issues than just the length of Sunnie’s hair, adding, “things disturbed the classroom environment.” However, the administrator declined to give any more information because of confidentiality.
“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,” Doris told WSET. She also explained that Sunnie has been crying on her bus rides to public school because she misses her friends.