Looks exactly like a gun.

A school district has demanded a three-year-old deaf student named Hunter use a different hand sign for his name as the current gesture resembles a gun, his parents have claimed. The Grand Island, Nebraska district reportedly has a policy forbidding children from bringing ‘any instrument that looks like a weapon’ to school.

School administrators claim Hunter Spanjer’s name sign, which he makes by crossing his index finger and middle finger and then shaking his hands, violates that policy, his parents said. While it is perhaps unsurprising that the sign for the name Hunter resembles a gun, supporters of the family have argued that it is not something the little boy will be aware of.

‘Anybody that I have talked to thinks this is absolutely ridiculous. This is not threatening in any way,’ the boy’s grandmother, Janet Logue, told KOLN.

‘His name sign, they say, is a violation of their weapons policy,’ his father, Brian Spanjer, added. ‘It’s a registered sign through S.E.E.’ – which stands for Signing Exact English, a sign language system.

He should change his name to something like Phuc Yu, but then that would be considered bullying. Sigh.



  1. orchidcup says:

    No comment.

  2. noneofyourbusiness says:

    Change the hand jesture to the shocker. Then the idiots will find something else to complain about.

  3. noneofyourbusiness says:

    or gesture :^/

  4. Buckwheat says:

    Since (most) everyone can make this hand gesture shouldn’t everyone be forced to leave their hands at home to avoid “bringing a gun” to school?

    • Stick em up says:

      Yeah, utterly absurd!

      Wait until the bathroom police say their “junk” looks like a .44 Magnum (or Derringer).

  5. Richard says:

    I don’t see how their policy can trump the Americans with Disabilities Act.

  6. bobbo, the pragmatic existential evangelical anti-theist says:

    Three year old mutes can be very dangerous this way. give them milk and cookies, and they will take over the entire playground.

  7. Bobby says:

    He should change his name sign to the “Universal California Salute” which is, of course, an extended middle finger. The brilliant administrator who decided this, or bunch of brainiacs, should be fired immediately and banned from public employ for the remainder of their lives. We don’t need this kind of crap in public schools. Again, PC out of control……oh the horror.

  8. kjb434 says:

    I’m not the one to get all litigious, but the parents should bring a full discrimination lawsuit against the school district.

    Some hotshot lawyer could make his/her name on this one.

  9. Guyver says:

    All the more reason why there should be more options for parents other than government-run education.

  10. cd barber says:

    What… this isn’t Florida? Hope it’s not spreading.

  11. Ward Pearce says:

    Central NE Support Serv Program
    123 South Webb
    Grand Island , NE 68802

    (308) 385-5900

  12. msbpodcast says:

    I gave him a solution: upturned middle fingers aimed right at the idiots.

  13. Scoot Forward says:

    Gynos make that gesture 20 times a day!

  14. spsffan says:

    There are two problems here. First is the obvious completely idiotic school district and their inflexible rules.

    Second, though nearly as stupid, are parents who would name a child “Hunter”. Is his sister named “Gatherer”?

    • Cool Breeze says:

      Are you not a fan of Hunter Douglas? LOL

    • So what says:

      HUNTER PENCE, baseball player
      HUNTER TYLO, actress
      HUNTER CANTWELL , football player
      HUNTER ENIS, football player
      HUNTER FREEMAN, soccer player
      HUNTER GOODWIN, football player
      HUNTER HILL, baseball player
      HUNTER HILLENMEYER, football player
      HUNTER KEMPER, 2008 Olympic athlete – United States – Triathlon
      HUNTER LANE, baseball player
      HUNTER MAHAN, PGA tour golfer
      HUNTER SMITH, football player
      HUNTER S. THOMPSON, Journalist

      And spsffan goes down in flames.

  15. noname says:

    I think this is a great Idea.

    “A school district has demanded a three-year-old deaf student named Hunter use a different hand sign for his name as the current gesture resembles a gun,”

    Either that, or make his parents paint/tattoo his hand “hunters orange”; so the police don’t mistake it for a gun, shot the poor kid dead for giving the Cops his name. As the Cops will inevitably Stop-and-Frisk him on our country’s sidewalks in the daytime; as we head further down this police state path we are on.

  16. kmfix says:

    Context is everything. If these idiots can’t figure that out they shouldn’t be teaching.

    Also, forcing the kid to change his name is much like saying you’re not an acceptable person. Which might have some interesting consequences down the road.

  17. noname says:

    McCullough,

    Is the “You’ve got to be kidding!” kid also deaf?

  18. orchidcup says:

    This is a story from 10 years ago:

    Boys Get In Trouble For Playing With Finger Guns

    Seven fourth graders in the Cherry Creek School District were given detention for a week after they were caught using their fingers as imaginary weapons, a newspaper reported Monday.

    The incident took place March 25 at Dry Creek Elementary School, 7NEWS reported.

    The boys were playing soldiers-versus-aliens during lunch when a playground monitor pulled them all aside and brought them to the principal’s office because they displayed violent and aggressive behavior during the game, said Mary Terch, executive director of elementary education for Cherry Creek Schools.

    The whole world laughs at us. It is embarrassing.

  19. sixfingermanalive says:

    Better play it safe and amputate all his fingers except the middle ones. Best to error on the side of caution.

  20. George says:

    How often do you need to say your own name? Is it that the school district doesn’t want the -teachers- to be signing the kids name?

  21. Supreme Ultrahuman (I see the comment system is still designed for retards.) says:

    This would not be a problem if we amended the Constitution so every single American, male and female was named “Bob”.

    Why Bob you ask? If you spell it backwards it’s still “Bob”. (Spell it inside out and you have “Obb”, but that’s insignificant in this context.)

    If we also changed sign language such that the symbol for Bob is an extended middle finger, that could become the standard greeting for both hearing impaired and hearing enabled. (Just make sure you use a different finger to pick your nose – yes everyone picks their nose. Enviro-wackos are the only ones to eat it though. Have to recycle you know.

  22. GregAllen says:

    This story needs a BS meter.

  23. Sheila says:

    that’s just plain silly~~!!!

    survivingsurvivalism.com

  24. NewformatSux says:

    In California, there is a rule that if a school is underperforming, the parents can petition to have the leadership replaced, and turn the school into a charter school. One school district did that, and the school leadership is refusing to hand over the reins, saying ‘let them find me in contempt of court’.

  25. roy b. giv says:

    he’s making a gang sign: don’t you see it?

  26. Rick says:

    I only make that hand sign when I’m working on a vagina.

  27. Yumpin Yoe Goebbels says:

    Heeeere’s yer sign. (Unfortunately, it’s a swastika.)

  28. Mark says:

    From the description it sounds like a variation of the hand sign for ‘H’ and ‘R’ , useful when spelling the name Hunter. But then I would not expect these school
    Officials to know how to spell…

  29. Somebody says:

    Maybe if he also straightened the little finger.


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