TORONTO – Grandparents of an 8-year-old Virginia girl pulled her from a private Christian school after they say she was told to act and dress more like a girl.
Sunnie Kahle likes to collect autographed baseballs, coins and hunting knives. She also likes to keep her hair short.
“Sunnie realizes she’s a female, but she wants to do boy things,” Doris Thompson, Kahle’s grandmother and legal guardian, told WDBJ7.
Thompson said her granddaughter enjoys wearing jeans and T-shirts and is often mistaken for a boy at school, prompting a letter from Timberlake Christian School’s (TCS) administration office.
ABC 13 News obtained a copy of the letter, which reminds Thompson of the school’s “biblical role to work in conjunction with the home to mould students to be Christ-like.”
“We believe that unless Sunnie as well as her family clearly understand that God has made her female and her dress and behaviour need to follow suit with her God-ordained identity, that TCS is not the best place for her future education,” the letter said.
Thompson told ABC: “How do you label a child, eight years old, or discriminate against an eight year old child? It just don’t happen.”
In the letter, school principal Becky Bowman said she is aware of Kahle’s personal life.
“I also understand that Sunnie is being counselled professionally regarding her identity and image,” Bowman wrote, “in order to steer her in a particular direction to handle these identity issues.”
The school went on the defensive Tuesday after Thompson went public.
“We regret that they made the decision to withdraw Sunnie immediately from Timberlake Christian Schools,” TCS said in a press release.
Citing confidentiality concerns, the school said “it is not possible for us to explain in full detail the volume of documentation we have concerning the situation that the grandparents have made public…there is much more to this story than has been revealed related to Sunnie and the classroom environment.”
Kahle now attends a public school.
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