I hope I’m being punked, here.
Three-year-old Hunter Spanjer is deaf. He attends a preschool in Grand Island, NE. But there seems to be a problem. When he signs his name, he uses a sign that looks like a gun — for “Hunter”, get it? I know you do.
But.
According to Nebraska TV channels KGIN and KOLN:
[H]is 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,” […]
“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.
Zero intelligence tolerance strikes again.
Face palm.
So is the number 21. Is no one allowed to sign that? Pure idiocy.
A problem with overly powerful governments is their tendency to populated by petty bureaucrats incapable of rationality when they can rely on a rule instead. Think Brazil and “Form 27b/6”. Thanks for dropping by, Greg — Don’t be a stranger!
Update: school district has been made to understand that they were de facto asking him to change his name against his will and has dropped the request. Asking him to change the sign to something else is akin to asking him to spell Hunter as DENNIS. Superintendent sees that now.
So all it takes to get bureaucrats to act sensibly is nationwide scorn and the involvement of numerous advocates for the disabled. I still vote for helicopter-mounted rockets. (I’d suggest the orbital mind-control lasers, but that presupposes minds.)
Seriously, thanks for the update.