Christian School Warns Girl, 8: You're Too Boyish

An 8-year-old girl's grandparents received a warning letter from her western Virginia school: Sunnie Kahle, the letter suggested, isn't feminine enough—and risked getting kicked out of the institution. "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 (Timberlake Christian School) is not the best place for her," the letter said. Kahle's grandparents, Doris and Carroll Thompson, didn't wait for the school to take action; they pulled her out of TCS themselves, ABC 13 reports.

"How do you label a child or discriminate against an 8-year-old child?" asks Carroll Thompson. At age 5, Sunnie "had hair down to her waist and she wanted to give it to a child with cancer," Doris Thompson tells WDBJ7. Kids would sometimes ask about her gender, but she didn't mind. "Sunnie realizes she's a female, but she wants to do boy things," Doris Thompson notes. Now Sunnie is at public school, but she's struggling. A TCS administrator says the issue "goes far beyond her hair length," adding that "things disturbed the classroom environment." (More Sunnie Kahle stories.)