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School says deaf boy's name sign looks too much like a gun

by taskemann
1 replies
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We've heard a lot of things about pupils being expelled because their food looks like a gun, that the state of Idaho looks like a sideways gun and should therefore be banned and that some schools even has removed the letter "L" from the alphabet since it looks like a gun and the letter "F" looks like a gun with a high-cap magazine. But this one is new to me:

Hunter Spanjer says his name with a certain special hand gesture, but at just three and a half years old, he may have to change it.

"He's deaf, and his name sign, they say, is a violation of their weapons policy," explained Hunter's father, Brian Spanjer.

Grand Island's "Weapons in Schools" Board Policy 8470 forbids "any instrument...that looks like a weapon," But a three year-old's hands?

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

"It's a symbol. It's an actual sign, a registered sign, through S.E.E.," Brian Spanjer said.

S.E.E. stands for Signing Exact English, Hunter's sign language. Hunter's name gesture is modified with crossed-fingers to show it is uniquely his own.


Grand Island Preschooler Asked to Change the Sign for His Name in School



All I have to say to this is:

  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    The only person who says the child was told to change his signing was the father. It's a different sign language than usually taught in schools and there is no reference in the news coverage to any one person at the school who told him to change it.

    The statement from the school seems to make this a non-issue:

    Grand Island Public Schools is not requiring any current student with a hearing impairment to change his or her sign language name.
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