Just When You Thought Your Head Was Safe From Exploding...

**Ryan Ruck** · August 29th, 2012, 17:51

Time to break out the duct tape!

School Allegedly Asks Deaf Preschooler to Change His Name Because Sign Language Version Resembles ‘Weapons’

August 28, 2012

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.

Watch an interview with the family, and a demonstration of the gesture:

The school is claiming the entire matter is a “misunderstanding” — but still wants Hunter to change his name.

Administrators say the issue has nothing to do with guns or weapons, just that the gesture is “not an appropriate thing to do in school.”

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.

“We want to do what is best for every student in our district, and we care more about that than everything else,” Sheard remarked. “We are working with the parents to find the best solution we can.”

Apparently, local residents are not pleased with the school district.

Grand Islander Dana Schwieger said: “It’s his name…It‘s not like he’s going to bring a gun to school when he’s 3-years old.”

**American Patriot** · August 29th, 2012, 18:54

I say that if the administrator and teachers can't HANDLE this, then fire them and keep putting in new teachers until someone gets a bloody clue.

NOTHING and I repeat NOTHING pisses me off more than someone trying to tell a kids "That's not your name".

I watched my mom "go to town" on a teacher in the Detroit Public schools when I was a kid. My GIVEN name is "Ricky".

Not Richard.

This teacher INSISTED I be called by my "proper name". When I told her it was Ricky she told me "No it isn't! Your name is Richard".

LOL

I laughed and told her I'd ask my mom. (I think I was about 11 when this happen, maybe 12). It's not like I DIDN'T KNow what my birth certificate said.

Many, MANY years later, a teacher insisted on calling my daughter "Kristy" by ANYTHING OTHER than "Kristy". She called her "Krispy", "Kristyann" and several other names.

My wife went "to town" on her (That was the DC public schools)