Nebraska school says 3-year-old deaf boy’s sign-language gesture for his own name looks like guns, must change

School authorities in Grand Island, Neb., fret that the hand sign used by 3-year-old deaf boy to signify his own name in S.E.E. sign language resembles a gun, which they say is a violation of district policy on banning anything that may resemble a weapon. They want him to change it.

Is that finger loaded? Hunter Spanjer, 3, is accused of violating the school district’s policy that forbids kids bringing to school ‘any instrument ... that looks like a weapon.’

A Nebraska school district wants a 3-year-old deaf boy to change the way he signs his name because they say the gesture makes his hands look like weapons.

The district, in Grand Island, about three hours west of Omaha, has a policy that forbids kids bringing to school "any instrument ... that looks like a weapon," local station KOLN reported.

Hunter Spanjer signs his name by crossing his index finger and middle finger and then wagging his hands, which the school says looks menacing.

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

Brian Spanjer demonstrates how his son Hunter signs his name.

"It's a symbol," his father, Brian Spanjer, added. "It's an actual sign, a registered sign, through S.E.E.," or Signing Exact English, a sign language system.

A school spokesman told the station that they were working with the parents to find a solution.

Locals think the school should leave the tyke alone.

"It's his name. It's not like he's going to bring a gun to school when he's 3 years old," Grand Islander Dana Schwieger fumed.

Hunter Spanjer signing with family members. '"Anybody that I have talked to thinks this is absolutely ridiculous,' his grandmother said about the school's concerns.