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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Pastor Writes To Spurned ‘Tomboy’

Sunnie Kahle, 8, recently withdrew from Timberlake Christian School in Forest, Va. after the school sent a letter asking her to either dress and act more feminine or not enroll again because she looked too much like a boy. Story here. (AP Photo/The News & Advance, Jill Nance)

Rev. Emily C. Heath of the United Methodist Church wrote the following blog post for Sunnie Kahle, the 8-year-old who was told by officials at her Virginia Christian school not to return until she dressed and acted more feminine: "I'll bet that I was a lot like you when I was eight years old. I didn't like dresses. I liked playing football and collecting baseball cards. My favorite things were airplanes and science kits. And I liked cutting my hair short. A lot of people called me a tomboy. I think they meant that as an insult, but I actually thought that was pretty neat. Maybe you do too. Or maybe you don't. Which is okay, because if you don't you can call yourself whatever you want. You get that choice, just like you get to choose what kind of clothes you wear, and what hobbies you like." More here.

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D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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