Tell me this is a joke, right? School wants deaf 3-year-old to change name because the way he refers to himself in sign language resembles weapons

School spokesman Jack Sheard said they want him to spell out his name, letter by letter

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

The Blaze:

(Erica Ritz) 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.”

Read more: The Blaze