Anti-Gun Wacko of The Week: Grand Island NE School Board

Monachus Lex ^ | August 29, 2012 | John Pierce

[JohnPierce]

--IMAGE HERE--

When I wrote last week’s Anti-Gun Wacko of the Week column about University of Colorado Professor Jerry Peterson, I chose the name of the column on a bit of a whim. I didn’t really expect that I would find that level of outrageousness on a weekly basis.

But by now, you would think I would know better than to underestimate the ability of bureaucrats to make blindly stupid decisions.

And that brings us to today’s story about 3-year-old Hunter Spanjer. Hunter is, by all reports, a happy and well-loved child who attends preschool in Grand Island Nebraska. Hunter is just like all the other boys and girls except for one thing … the school board wants to take away his name.

You see … Hunter is deaf and uses American Sign Language (ASL). And the ASL symbol for Hunter or hunting is shown in the video below. Hunter then crosses his fingers to show it is a formal name instead of the concept of hunting. It is the official sign for his name.

--VIDEO HERE--

But the Grand Island School Board doesn’t care. They say that the sign runs afoul of their ‘Weapons in Schools’ policy which bans “any instrument … that looks like a weapon.” Forgetting for a second the ridiculousness of banning objects based upon mere looks, the level of stupidity and insensitivity that it takes to stretch such a rule to encompass a deaf child using official ASL signs is staggering.

I personally believe that their stance is in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) as well as being an unconstitutional abuse of power and discretion. And I am not alone in that assessment. The National Association of the Deaf is providing legal services to help Hunter’s family fight this bigotry and stupidity.

I imagine that there are an awful lot of people who are thinking of other hand gestures that might be appropriate for the Grand Island School Board right now. I will leave you with that cheerful thought as we all wish Hunter’s family the best in fighting for his right to keep his very name.

[A. Morgan]

http://www.1011now.com/home/headlines/Grand-Island-Preschooler-Forbidden-Sign-Language-for-His-Own-Name-167394325.html

[JohnPierce]

Thanks! I had not seen that. I added their statement and the fact that the ACLU was also getting involved to the article.

[JohnPierce]

But we need to keep the pressure on and not let them off the hot seat until this ‘zero tolerance’ rule is replaced by a rational one.

[InkStone]

http://www.gips.org/district-services/superintendents-office

Grand Island Public Schools
Grand Island, Nebraska

Dr. Robert Winter
Superintendent
308.385.5900

rwinter@gips.org

[ExCTCitizen]

jeez, why not ban the first name of Hunter?? /s

I shouldn't have said that, in France, there's a law saying that you can only name your child on an accepted name list!!

[JohnPierce]

I was unaware of that. Wow ... We truly are the last bastian of freedom (and we aren’t doing so well ourselves). :(

[JohnPierce]

Thanks for the link to the contact info. I added that link to my article. :)

[Blood of Tyrants]

This is what happens when people who were educated by unionized public school teachers get old enough to be in charge of the school system.

[Wurlitzer]

Mark my words, in the not too distant future, we will be a free to say the “G” word as we are to joke about a Bomb in an airport.

Anyone, with the means and or the time who does not remove their children from public schools and into private, home schooling, or at least a charter school is contributing to the communist takeover of the USA.

It is obvious that not everyone has the means or time to do this and of them I certainly am not critical but if you can possibly do it, don’t allow them K-12 worth of commie brainwashing.

This is all part an parcel of the Communist Manifesto to overthrow the USA without firing a shot. The commies have executed their plan with almost flawless precision and great patience. They have been very successful filling most of our public schools with commie union teachers and for a couple of generations have been removing all knowledge of how and what this country was founded and even to the point of demeaning the founders.