SCHOOL ASKS DEAF PRESCHOOLER TO CHANGE HIS NAME BECAUSE SIGN LANGUAGE VERSION RESEMBLES WEAPONS

www.theblaze.com ^ | august 28, 2012

[lowbridge]

A deaf 3-year-old from Nebraska is being asked by the school district to change his name, his family alleges, because the way he refers to himself in sign language resembles “weapons.”

Apparently the Grand Island school district has a policy that prevents students from bringing “any instrument…that looks like a weapon” to school, and now hands can be considered “instruments.”

“Anybody that I have talked to thinks this is absolutely ridiculous. This is not threatening in any way,” Hunter Spanjer’s grandmother Janet Logue said.

Brian Spanjer, the boy’s father, added: “It’s a symbol. It’s an actual sign, a registered sign, through S.E.E. [Signing Exact English]”

Hunter signs his name by crossing his middle and index fingers– leaving his thumbs up– and then wagging his hands.

[turn_to]

The familiy alleges? Until I find out if this is really true or not, I’m going to firmly hold my knee to keep it from jerking.

[arkady_renko]

You wonder if we are heading towards ruin? Here’s your sign...

[DCBryan1]

Time to feed the hogs.

[TXnMA]

Thanks! I was looking for that... We should bombard the school and its administrators with copies of it!

[vetvetdoug]

Where’s the ACLU and the Freedom of Speech Foundation (MSM) when they are needed?

[Greysard]

I believe, by extension, that the symbols, “W-E-A-P-O-N”, taken together, may also make one think of a weapon, and should likewise be banned.

"Any sound, any gesture, any hand or foot or tentacle sign that one could ever make must be 100% benign, in our opinion, in any of the infinite number of languages and signing systems that this infinite Universe, or any other, may have."

This means that the only compliant student is a motionless student inside of a telepathy-blocking enclosure. Same applies to teachers too, so teaching is no longer possible, out of fear that anyone, anywhere, anywhen, may be offended or threatened or merely inconvenienced.

/* This proof is called reductio ad absurdum. */

[paint_your_wagon]

I like your ‘COEXIST’. Did you make that?

[nothingnew]

I'll say it again.....this is not my world.....I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger....

FMCDH(BITS)

[shibumi]

[metmom]

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[Stosh]

Cannot the Nebraska legislature pass a law that prohibits hiring in the public school system any person who cannot tell the difference between two fingers and a handgun? That doesn’t seem too much to ask.

[hadaclueonce]

We Must Take back America in November.

Then in December we must start ridding America or the RNC RINO’s that are sucking the sap out of our lives.

One step, I know it sucks, but one step and then we fix it.

[Puckster]

A lobotomy would be an upgrade for these administrators.

[verga]

My wife has been an LPN for 30 years and a sign language interpreter for almost 20. a very cute and sweet functionally deaf 5 year old girl gave her her "sign name" which bears a striking resemblance to a gang sign. No one has ever said a word because deaf people know only deaf people can give you a sign name.

I really want to know which jack wad let this go this far?

IO hope you didn't think we were on opposite sides on this.

[Oztrich Boy]

I hear the parents have agreed to change the boy’s name to “Lance”

[Tired of Taxes]

I showed this story to one of my sons, who took a course in sign language a few years ago. When he read this line:

School spokesman Jack Sheard told the New York Daily News that rather than the condensed sign he uses now, they want him to spell out his name, letter by letter.

My son pointed out that the letter H - as in Hunter - would look more like a gun than what the boy is doing now to sign his name. You can see an example of H here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sign_Language_alphabet

[buffaloguy]

Gatling?

[Emperor Palpatine]

Or Cleaver.

I went to school with a guy named Adam Baum, I kid you not.

[prairiebreeze]

marker

[Grimmy]

Bizarro crap like this, and all the other bizarro crap associated with “zero tolerance” insanities should be a basic litmus test.

Any school or district displaying their incompetence in such manner should face mass firings.

These people are responsible for teaching children and they can’t even think themselves. Why is that being allowed?