Hunter Spanjer, 3-Year-Old Deaf Boy, Told By Preschool To Change Way He Signs His Name (VIDEO)

Hunter Spanjer signing his name -- threatening or not?

In a move blasted by rights groups, a 3-year-old-deaf boy has been told by his Nebraska school district to change the way he signs his name because the gesture resembles shooting a gun.

Hunter Spanjer uses the standard S.E.E., Signing Exact English. He crosses his index and middle fingers and waves them slightly to signify his name. And, Grand Island Public Schools' policy forbids any "instrument" that "looks like a weapon," reported NCN (see video above).

While crossing his fingers is a slight modification to the standard gesture, one meant to give it the personal touch, according to NCN, Hunter's family is outraged by the district's reaction.

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

Hunter's dad, Brian Spanjer, told The Huffington Post on Tuesday: "I feel like it was an overreach on their part and I expected a lot better from the local school district."

Spanjer posted a letter on Facebook that the ACLU sent to the district "politely" asking it to reconsider policy.

Howard Rosenblum, CEO of the National Association of the Deaf, told HuffPost his organization was prepared to assist the Spanjers with legal action if necessary. "A name sign is the equivalent of a person's name, and to prohibit a name sign is to prohibit a person's name," he wrote in an email.

A district spokesman told the Nebraska station the school was trying to come to the best solution for preschooler Hunter. The Huffington Post left a message with the district for comment early Tuesday.

Brian Spanjer has begun a Facebook page devoted to protesting the school's action. "Absolute madness and blatant disability discrimination," wrote Sheryl Booth.

Blogs have taken up Hunter's cause as well. A commenter on Lenore Skenazy's site Free-Range Kids asked, "Whatever happened to common sense and shared humanity, not to mention respecting the dignity of a 3 year old and his family?"

LOOK: 7 More Things Schools Have Banned This Year (via Babble)

Loading Slideshow

• Bake Sales

  Schools in Massachusetts are barred from hosting <a href="http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1061129772" target="_hplink">bake sales</a> by the state's Department of Public Health and Education. First reported last March, the ban became effective August 1.

• Bows

  Three-year-old Marcella Marino, whose father is apparently an EPIC hairstylist, wasn't allowed to rock this Gaga-esque bow for her school picture. Why? Because her school <a href="http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2012/05/23/4-year-old-girl-banned-from-getting-school-photo-because-of-hairstyle/" target="_hplink">bans braids and bows</a> in their dress code. Bummer.

• Facebook (even while not in school)

  A private, all-Jewish school in Brooklyn <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/students-all-girls-jewish-school-brooklyn-face-100-fine-facebook-article-1.1052499?localLinksEnabled=false" target="_hplink">banned students from using Facebook</a>, even outside of school, because it is "immodest." Thirty-three students at Beis Rivkah High School were fined $100 each by the school's rabbi last March.

• High Fives

  In June of this year, a primary school in Australia garnered jeers from parents after it <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/mt-martha-primary-schools-no-contact-policy-bans-tiggy-and-high-fives/story-fn7x8me2-1226395143679" target="_hplink">banned high fives</a>, hugging or playing tiggy, basketball or football. Students caught doing any of these activities will be punished with counseling sessions. By the way, I had to Google "tiggy." It's apparently some kind of incredibly dangerous form of Australian tag. Probably involves whacking people with boomerangs or something. What? It's just tag? Oh. Well then I got nothin'.

• Hugging

  A New Jersey school <a href="http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2012/03/23/beating-students-is-allowed-at-some-schools-but-hugging-is-banned-at-another/" target="_hplink">banned hugging</a> this year, after "incidents of unsuitable, physical interactions" were witnessed by teachers. Meanwhile, as Babble's <a href="http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2012/03/23/beating-students-is-allowed-at-some-schools-but-hugging-is-banned-at-another/" target="_hplink">Meredith Carroll</a> points out, 19 states still allow public school teachers to beat students. Yay, priorities.

• Lee Greenwood

  OK, not the actual Lee Greenwood, just his song, "God Bless the USA." A New York City school principal <a href="http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2012/06/11/nyc-principal-receives-racist-hate-mail-after-banning-god-bless-the-usa-at-kindergarten-graduation/" target="_hplink">banned the song</a> from a kindergarten graduation this year.

• The acronym 'LOL'

  Students at an Atlanta-area elementary school were asked to sign a pledge agreeing not to use <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3IC8uXJEzU" target="_hplink">the acronym "LOL"</a> in their yearbook. The school later changed their policy after parents and students ridiculed the ban.

• <strong><a href="http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2012/08/14/seriously-15-things-schools-have-banned-so-far-in-2012/" target="_hplink">For 8 more ridiculous things schools have banned, visit Babble!</a></strong> <br> <strong>More on Babble</strong> <br> <a href="http://blogs.babble.com/family-style/2011/12/28/17-kids-fashions-we-hope-disappear-by-2012/ " target="_hplink">17 fashion trends that need to disappear this year</a> <br> <a href="http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2012/07/12/judging-a-book-by-its-cover-a-6-year-old-guesses-what-classic-novels-are-all-about/" target="_hplink">22 classic novels as explained by a 6-year-old</a> <br> <a href="http://www.babble.com/mom/work-family/parent-humor-mom-secrets-kids-dont-know/parent-humor-mom-secrets-kids-dont-know-1/" target="_hplink">The 10 biggest secrets parents hide from their kids</a>

From our partners

• 25 Considerations For Naming Baby - LilSugar
• A Letter To My Postpartum, Hormonal Completely Overwhelmed Self - Mommyish
• 6 Tips For Getting More Veggies Into Your Kid's Diet - BabyCenter

Comments

[Ryan Jenkins]

12:35 PM on 06/13/2013

This is from the Onion right?

[Shane Shaw]

06:29 AM on 06/04/2013

So has this gone on long enough for you yet? Are you sick enough of this ridiculous PC Zero Tolerance BS yet to say enough is enough? At what point did common sense in this country become extinct?

[Seaprimate Jenkins]

12:54 PM on 06/03/2013

I, for one, applaud this school for taking a stand against evil guns. The child should have known better. With a name like Hunter, he's more prone to violence anyway because hunters carry weapons making them more likely to be criminals. I wouldn't feel safe putting my child into a school that has another child making a gun gesture with his hand every time he says hello.

[Linda Falke]

08:14 PM on 06/03/2013

Please tell me this is a joke.

[MrTrollinski]

11:32 PM on 06/03/2013

I... I... I don't know what to say to this... Oh my.

[champagnesabre]

03:30 PM on 06/02/2013

Anybody still wondering what "FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATION" means?

FORWARD!

[lostNcolorado]

11:20 PM on 02/04/2013

This is the biggest piece of political correct krap_ola ever conceived. I wonder what Hunter Thompson would have to say about this. As he once wrote, "as the going gets wierd, the wierd turn pro". This is All Pro lunacy.

[gizmo357]

11:38 AM on 01/19/2013

What is sad is that common sense (yes I know it is not as common as we would wish) is lacking - in other cases as well where 6-year-olds are being suspended for making gun gestures when they play (MD and PA are the most recent) - Zero tolerance doesn't mean zero intelligence ... well it shouldn't

[C4talyst]

03:37 PM on 06/09/2013

Zero tolerance, by definition, is zero intelligence. It leaves no "wiggle room" for reasonable and rational responses. Under a zero tolerance policy, every problem is a nail, and every solution is a hammer. It's unfortunate that the US school systems are inundated with such short-sighted "thinkers".

[ThomasRossCMT]

10:47 AM on 12/20/2012

Teachers have been blithely messing with their kids names since the stone ages. Mispronunciation, insistence on unused proper names instead of commonly used nicknames, forced nicknames when multiple students have the same name...seems like they are messing with this kid about the same as they do the fully able ones.

[LaurieACouture]

08:57 PM on 11/21/2012

What is even more outrageous than the school trying to force this child's parents to change his name is that the parents are sending him to school in the first place! It is your right to homeschool your child- Homeschool and free your son from this asinine violation of human rights!

[Kathryn K]

03:43 PM on 11/25/2012

So the "reasonable" solution is for the parents to take on the (enormous) fiscal and temporal burden of homeschooling? That's...well, that's a pretty privileged viewpoint.

[Avice Mendenhall Woodard]

03:04 AM on 11/29/2012

I have known two women who home schooled their kids. One was great, had a cooperative, well-thought-out program with a group of mothers and I am sure they did a great job. The other should never have been allowed to do this. There used to be standards for home-schooling but now it seems anybody can teach their children any kind of drivel and call it an education. You sound more like the latter.

[Howie1960]

05:19 PM on 11/15/2012

People With Disabilities Act, anyone?

[Howie1960]

05:10 PM on 11/15/2012

Don't worry. Americans' outrage at this nonsense will benefit the boy and his family. You can take that to the bank and cash it, too.

[Shannon219]

03:23 PM on 09/04/2012

Ok..seriously...this has to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. IT'S HIS NAME. Get a grip! Don't you have other things to worry about, Oh great and mighty school system, than to badger a three year old over his own NAME?

[marymrevis]

11:31 PM on 09/03/2012

Someone needs to EDUCATE these morons at Grand Island public schools. What's next for these lame brains? OH I know...since my husband is Deaf and signs ASL, are these jerks going tell me that my husband's sign name looks like a gang symbol? I hope family DOES sue and gets a settlement out of them..that will assist Hunter in his higher education when he is older.

[CharliDenae]

11:20 PM on 09/02/2012

Give me a frickin' break! I understand that schools have a great trial in trying to keep children safe BUT fingers that look like a gun? Please! He's simply signing his name, for crying out loud! This is taking 'politically correct' way too far.

[DrJackBrown]

08:28 PM on 09/02/2012

this story is both sad and ironic. The school system displays an incredible lack of empathy and poor communication skills - particularly on an issue that is communication-related. See also: http://www.bodylanguagesuccess.com/2012/09/nonverbal-communication-analysis-2101_2.html

[jessiernut]

02:57 AM on 09/02/2012

So, if a non deaf child named Colt or Gunnar were to attend, would they be forced to be called a different name when at school since those are possibly gun related? Would a child with the last name Remmington not be allowed to use his last name?

[Howie1960]

05:08 PM on 11/15/2012

Nail on head.