NE School to Deaf Boy: Please Change Your Name

A Nebraska school district is asking a deaf preschooler to change the way he signs his name because they’re worried about the gesture he uses to identify himself.

FOX News Radio’s Chris Hoenig has the story:

To communicate his name, 3-year-old Hunter Spanjer folds his ring and pinky fingers in and extends his other fingers.  That forms Signing Exact English’s “hunt.”  Then, he crosses his index and middle fingers to add the “er,” forming “Hunter.”

But the Grand Island School District says that looks too much like the way kids make a gun with their fingers, and they want him to change it.  ’Signing Exact English’ sign system author Esther Zawolkow says it’s possible, since people with the same name often use different signs to identify themselves.  But, she adds, those signs are very personal.

(Zawolkow) “That’s his name sign, and that’s what he grew up with.”

The district says they hope to come to a solution soon.

Chris Hoenig, FOX News Radio.