1011 – by Steve Ross 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.
“We are working with the parents to come to the best solution we can for the child,” said Jack Sheard, Grand Island Public Schools spokesperson.
That’s just about all GIPS officials will say for now.
Meantime, Hunter’s parents say that by Monday, lawyers from the National Association of the Deaf are likely to weigh in for Hunter’s right to sign his own name.
Despite whatever rules and regulations may exist, some Grand Islanders we spoke with said they don’t think it’s right to make a three year-old change the way he says his name.
“It’s his name. It’s not like he’s going to bring a gun to school when he’s three years old,” commented Dana Schwieger.
“I find it very difficult to believe that the sign language that shows his name resembles a gun in any way would even enter a child’s mind,” Grand Island resident Fredda Bartenbach reflected.
But for now, that’s a discussion between the Spanjers and Grand Island Public Schools officials.
Grand Island Public Schools has released a statement since we talked with them Friday. A link can be found below.
Just when you think it can’t get any more bizarre,
here they go again. Absolutely ridiculous!
Of course, ANYTHING that resembles a gun in any way shape or form is STRICTLY PROHIBITED these days ANYWHERE. It’s as if they have this idea that guns are the devil itself. The demonizing of guns. That’s all it is.
exception being if it in the hands of a gov official of any capacity.
Just so everyone knows, the hand sign for the number “8” in Chinese is basically the same as this gesture, which to us looks like someone imitating that they are holding a gun with their fingers. All Chinese students and international students both young and old learn it that way and have done so for years. It’s so common, it’s not even thought to be in any way evil or demonized whatsoever. It’s second nature. People even use it at grocery stores or when they are bartering for goods. And THAT’s in a Communist country. So who is more free and who is more ridiculously insane these days? People (Sheeple) here in the U.S. really need to grow up and lighten up and learn to live a little. It’s pathetic and embarrassing.
Live a little, NC? They’re way too busy dying from all the cr@p Big Pharma is shoveling down their willing throats these days.
As to the article: despicable. WAY beyond anything remotely resembling sane.
More proof that the lunatics have INDEED taken over the asylum.
Well, I was referring to the sheeple in leadership positions and their insistence on having Big Brother tell them how they can and cannot act on everything because they have no brains to decide for themselves anymore.
But yea, basically because most of them are probably mentally screwed on some BigPharm meds to even begin to think before they act.
What would they say if I give them my middle finger as the sign for my middle initial?…..hummmmmmm
V
Perhaps they would find “F You” a more suitable name?
amerika is for sure in decline. wtf. lol omg
I just lost my appetite. Its this type of stuff that makes me know that even if “we the people” stood up to our crap government the problems we have will not go away for it is the very ideas behind this story that would make it still suck…
I am all for the full and total collapse of the system and the purging of all the masses incapable of living life free of bi-laws and mama and papa legislators. See you all in the trenches. Ill be the one laughing.
Yep, I feel the same way sometimes. It’s so sad. Basically children in leadership positions who never grew up.
Next they will ban mechanics grease guns, painters caulk guns, paint guns, but that same kid can go into the army at 18 and rampantly kill for the government. It all makes such perfect sense to madmen.
Boy– I hope that hand gesture is registered and does not come with a high capacity gesture. Create a gesture safety zone around the school!!
You know what? The biggest killers on earth –the gov types have all the guns and ammo they want. Immunity from prosecution, and the gall to kill innocents.
Hahaha! Gesture safety zones! Now that’s comedy in an insane world.
Be patient and forgive these poor bureaucrats folks…they are a very special kind of stupid. All they know are rules and regulations. They consider common sense and rational thinking to be vaguely unsettling and very scary things. And if I’m not mistaken, Bill Engvall has a special sign just for them.
Bang, Bang.. I killed you liberal degenerates with my finger pistol. Now pretend to be dead so that the intelligent beings can be productive…
If you make the gun hand gesture with your hand in your pocket is that doubly bad because it’s a concealed weapon?
Nothing will change. Until the Americans grow some cojones & have a robust discussion with the base ball bat on all those loonies politically correct monkeys!
NB No distinction of gender!
This is the freedom and democracy and great American dream the government wants to export to the world? F#@king idiots running the show these days are worse than the dark ages rulers.
Yea I also wonder about that, too, sometimes. Did the Dark ages have rulers that were mentally worse than this? One can only imagine.
Jack Sheard, and the Grand Island Public Schools Administrators should have a mental evaluation.
I sometimes think that the absurdity that is America can surely go no lower, then I read about the creatures who try to enforce craziness like this and realise that there is no lowest for them. The US will eventually exceed the monstrous crimes of the communist states that have now thankfully passed away. We know that the demons who misrule there are capable of any imaginable evil but it is the perverse and cowardly stupidity of the American people that is most disturbing. George Orwell could not have imagined a place like the current United States.
“We know that the demons who misrule there are capable of any imaginable evil but it is the perverse and cowardly stupidity of the American people that is most disturbing.”
And THAT’S what pisses me off the most. The “ignorance is strength” kind of people in our country today. All of them ought to be bashed over the head with a bat.
I just keep thinking of Stewie from “The Family Guy” after he says something along the lines of “Ok, we’ll settle this. I’ll give you the money and then you give me the bat.” So the guy gives him the bat after taking the money from Stewie. Stewie then whacks him over the head with the bat, takes the money and while standing over him, says,
“Now what have we learned?”
Yep, just keep giving in to tyranny and have that baseball bat be whacked over that little head of yours. Ignorance is strength, you know.
Poor little guy….
I don’t know what to say. Let us meditate in awe at the enormity of stupid, and thank the Almighty that our minds are still functional, despite it all.