School conflict over 8 year old "tomboy"

Interesting story. I wonder if the school attempted any meetings to explain their position before giving the ultimatum.

Josh,

That’s a good question, but the article also says this:

“Abbett [Jeff Abbett, administrator of Timberlake Christian Schools] also said that “there is much more to this story” than Sunnie’s family is revealing.”

Clearly, the article tries to paint the school in as bad a light as possible, but like most stories, there are probably two sides to this one. The article doesn’t make it clear if there were dress standards at this school that the child was violating, etc. From what has been seen in the media so far on this story, there’s no real way to have a reasoned position on this event, even though the article is obviously trying to manipulate the reader into taking a position based on emotion.

I hope it’s obvious by now that we don’t assume CBS is getting the story right.

I hear there is a press release from the school presenting their side of it… I have not been able to locate that yet.

Edit: here it is: http://tcs4u.org/timberlakeuserfiles/file/tcs_news_release.pdf

I’ll add to the OP also.

it’s hard to know for sure when one side claims to be taking the moral high ground but remains largely silent claiming “confidentiality laws” prevent them from speaking, even going so far as to use only initials even though all the news articles are using her first name freely.

The most clear statement from the school about the situation comes from principal Bowman’s letter: “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.”

Now the school wants us to believe their claim in the press release that: “This matter is far beyond a simple ‘hairstyle and tomboy issue’ as inaccurately portrayed. 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.” And administrator Abbett says: “Our TCS teachers and administrators love Sunnie and we can assure everyone that this has never been an issue of hair length or boots as it has been portrayed.”

So the issue is something about gender identity, but not appearance, tomboy behavior or anything sexual. It’s hard to imagine what could be left that would make both statements true. Was it the boy’s pants thing like the grandmother suggested? The dress code allows pants, but maybe she wanted to wear pants with more pockets, so she wore a boys cargo pant that met the rules for the boys but wasn’t specifically against the rules for girls. Would the school really threaten expulsion over pockets? Is there some reason besides “confidentiality laws” motivating the school to keep everything hushed?

The school hired a lawyer, but what they really needed was a public relations expert so they would have a chance of successfully talking about gender issues with the public.

[dcbii]

Josh,

That’s a good question, but the article also says this:

“Abbett [Jeff Abbett, administrator of Timberlake Christian Schools] also said that “there is much more to this story” than Sunnie’s family is revealing.”

Clearly, the article tries to paint the school in as bad a light as possible, but like most stories, there are probably two sides to this one. The article doesn’t make it clear if there were dress standards at this school that the child was violating, etc. From what has been seen in the media so far on this story, there’s no real way to have a reasoned position on this event, even though the article is obviously trying to manipulate the reader into taking a position based on emotion.

I agree with you. I may not have worded that well but it was meant to mean there may be more behind the story than is being reported.