Surprised no one's mentioned this, but a Christian school in Virginia is in the spotlight after all but forcing an eight-year-old student to leave because she looks like a boy.  Eight-year-old Sunnie Kahle has had her hair cut short since she was five years old, and makes no secret she's a tomboy.  Well, Sunnie's appearance didn't sit too well with administrators at Timberlake Christian School in Forest, near Lynchburg.  Last month, her grandparents pulled her out of school after she was told her appearance didn't line up with "biblical standards."
"Sunnie realizes she's a female, but she wants to do boy things," said Doris Thompson, Kahle's great-grandmother and legal guardian.  "She wants to play rough and tough." Thompson has raised Kahle since she was an infant.  When she turned five, Thompson said she asked for a short hair cut.
"She had hair down to her waist and she wanted to give it to a child with cancer," said Thompson.  "After we cut her hair she started wanting to wear jeans and a t-shirt.  She didn't want to wear her frilly dresses anymore."
Her appearance started leading to awkward questions at school.
Kahle said her classmates would occasionally ask if she was a boy or a girl, but she said the question did not hurt her feelings.
The issue caught the attention of administrators at Timberlake Christian School, where Kahle was a student.
Elementary principal Becky Bowman sent home a letter last month, reminding Thompson of the school's religious affiliation and it's right to refuse students who contradict a "biblical lifestyle."
"We believe that unless Sunnie and 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," Bowman wrote in the letter, which was given to WDBJ7 by Thompson.
Read the letter Bowman sent here.  It implies that Sunnie is being "counseled" about her gender identity.  Thompson was gobsmacked.  She said that Sunnie is way too young to understand things like sexual orientation, and suspects the real reason is that she wanted to wear boys' pants with her school uniform.  In a reply of her own, Doris tore TCS a new one, pointing out that Sunnie is actually being counseled for mood swings.  Soon afterward, she pulled Sunnie out of TCS and enrolled her in public school. TCS' response is par for the course in an area of the country where a woman or girl with short hair is automatically suspected of being a lesbian.  Also, according to the school's Website, it is an outreach of Timberlake Baptist Church, an independent Baptist church in Lynchburg.
Yesterday, after several days of being kicked up, down and sideways over this, TCS went up the highway and asked Liberty Counsel to help defend it.  In a response released through Liberty Counsel, TCS claimed that it never called Sunnie sexually immoral, and that the real locus of the dispute is that Sunnie reportedly wanted to use the boys' bathroom.  Sorry, but TCS is lying.  What conclusion are you supposed to draw from this paragraph in the letter that Thompson got from the school?
You’re probably aware that Timberlake Christian Schools is a religious, Bible-believing Institution providing education in a distinctly Christian environment, and we believe that our biblical role is to work in conjunction with the home to mold students to be Christlike, On those occasions in which the atmosphere or conduct within a particular home is counter to or in opposition to the biblical lifestyle that the school teaches, the school reserves the right, within its sole discretion, to refuse admission of an applicant or to discontinue enrollment of a student. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to, living in, condoning or supporting sexual immorality; practicing homosexual lifestyle or alternative gender identity; promoting such practices; or otherwise having the inability to support the moral principles of the school. We base this standard on Bible principles as found in Leviticus 20:13a; Romans 1:21-27; Matthew 19:4-6; and I Corinthians 6:9-20.
What makes this even more disgusting is that this whole thing arose because a little girl wanted to donate her hair to another child who was fighting cancer.  For my money, little Sunnie has more Jesus in her than the entire leadership of Timberlake Baptist and TCS has between them.  TCS has the right to set standards like this.  And we have the concurrent right to hold them up for the ridicule they deserve. 

School Says Short-Haired Girl, 8, Needs To Start Acting More Feminine

 | by  Rebecca Klein
Posted: Updated:

This is really, really disappointing.
Two Virginia grandparents have pulled their granddaughter, Sunnie Kahle, 8, out of her Christian elementary school after receiving a letter from administrators saying they would reject admittance to the girl unless she started dressing more feminine, according to local outlet WSET-TV. Kahle wears her hair in a short cut, which apparently led administrators to worry over her gender identity.
"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,” reads the letter from Timberlake Christian Schools, per WSET.
A representative from the school did not immediately comment to The Huffington Post, although a rep told WSET that issues with Sunnie go "far beyond her hair length" and that other problems "disturbed the classroom environment.”
The school’s website says its vision is to “develop in [students] a passion for glorifying God and train them for a life consistent with a Biblical world-and-life view.”
But if the school wants to foster young people's religious zeal, it might help to drop its problematic agenda. A survey released last month by the Public Religion Research Institute found that one-third of millennials who left their religion did so for reasons related to "negative teachings" or "negative treatment" of the LGBT community.
"While many churches and people in the pews have been moving away from their opposition to LGBT rights over the last decade, this new research provides further evidence that negative teachings on this issue have hurt churches’ ability to attract and retain young people,” Public Religion Research Institute CEO Robert P. Jones said in a statement at the time.

School That Told Young Girl To Act More Feminine Says Children Had 'Restroom Concerns'

 | by  Rebecca Klein
SUNNIE
Posted: Updated:

The Virginia school that reportedly threatened to kick out an 8-year-old student unless she started acting more feminine, is speaking out to defend its actions. We do not find the the defense comforting.
On Wednesday, Timberlake Christian Schools released a statement via right-wing legal group Liberty Counsel. Posted on the school’s website, the statement claims administrators' treatment of student Sunnie Kahle (referred to in the statement as 'S.K.') has been unfairly portrayed in the media.
“This matter is far beyond a simple ‘hairstyle and tomboy issue’ as inaccurately portrayed,” the statement reads, in part. "It is not about that at all. At no time did the Church or the School state or imply that S.K. was sexually immoral or the like.”
The story surrounding Kahle gained national attention earlier this week when her great-grandparents told Virginia outlet WSET-TV they had received an offensive letter from the short-haired child’s school which read, “God has made [Kahle] female and her dress and behavior need to follow suit.”
At the time, a school spokesperson told the outlet that issues with Kahle go "far beyond her hair length" and that other problems "disturbed the classroom environment.”
The new statement from the school elaborates on what some of these issues may have been:
When elementary children and their parents or guardians express concerns regarding use of the restroom and other matters arising from the sensitive issues here, the School has a duty to address those concerns and to ensure that all interests are heard and protected in accordance with the Christian mission of the School. While we welcome all students, parents and guardians are made aware of the School’s Christian mission and beliefs. We not only have a right, but we also have a duty to uphold these Christian standards.
Kahle's great-grandmother, Doris Thomson, told Virginia outlet The News & Advance that there was an incident several years ago when a female student thought Kahle was a boy in the girls’ bathroom. She also said a group of boys tried to drag Kahle into the boys’ bathroom earlier this year.
According to local outlet WDBJ-TV, parents from the school also claimed Kahle had talked about getting a sex-change operation and wanting to use the boys’ restroom at school. Kahle's great-grandparents told the outlet that they believe the conversations described never happened.
Thomson told the News & Advance that she will not push her granddaughter to be more feminine. Kahle left the Timberlake school after receiving the initial letter of complaint and has since been attending a local public school.
  
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/28/1288037/-Virginia-Christian-school-forces-eight-year-old-girl-to-leave-because-she-looks-too-much-like-a-boy?detail=email

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/25/sunnie-kahle-christian-school_n_5030209.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/28/sunnie-kahle-school-statement_n_5045780.html