School forces deaf child to change the way he signs his name

[Akasa]

"Because it looks too much like a gun"

WTF?! The stupid it hurts!

http://now.msn.com/school-says-deaf-...uch-like-a-gun

[wraiths_crono]

(Brain explodes at stupidity, please wait new clone being hatched.) wow, that is probably the dumbest thing I have read all year, that school needs to honestly be hounded by the ADA groups now.. Idiots, whats next, my kid has to change her name because its the same as a video game character...

[fireheart17]

SERIOUSLY?! SERIOUSLY?!

I loved the comment in there from the Teacher of the Deaf. Also, I thought Signing English (known as signing Exact English) was falling out of favour these days with the focus being on Ameslan/Auslan/Brislan and so on.

I remember seeing some signed names from the teachers of the deaf at a school I observed. One of them was a teacher with the last name of Wong and she was a cooking instructor. So her sign name was the sign for W moved like it was on an ocean. (the sign for W down here from memory is to lace your fingers just past the first knuckle joint so it looks like a house) I think mine would've been the sign for A (index finger on right hand touching thumb of left hand) and played like a flute

[MadMike]

If that was me, I'd come up with a new way to sign my name for them myself. It involves a single finger.

[draco664]

Thank $DEITY!!!

These hard-working, honest and thoughtful school administrators are performing an essential service by banning a 3 year old from signing a pretend gun.

After all, who knows how many pretend injuries (or even *shock horror* pretend deaths!) could result from pretend bullets accidentally fired from his pretend gun.

Think of the children!!!!

[HYHYBT]

So.... *nobody's* going to take the side that says the school is being perfectly reasonable and rational in this?

(Don't look at me; my head hurts too much already to try bending it that way.)

[Andara Bledin]

As mentioned here and in the comments on the article, I'd totally recommend that the kid's new personal sign change from an index to a middle finger. >_<

Haven't we got better things to waste our time and money on?

^-.-^

[Seifer]

I don't think the school has any right to demand he change his sign if it's a nationally accepted sign for his own name. If anyone asks about it, just tell them the truth - the boy is deaf and is merely using the sign for his own name. Tell that to anyone who doesn't have their head up their ass and they'll accept it. If they don't? Tell them they can talk to the ADA and see how hard they laugh.

Here's a video if anyone wants to see the sign in action. I can kinda sorta see the problem, but again, explain it once and no one will think twice about it.

[draco664]

So.... *nobody's* going to take the side that says the school is being perfectly reasonable and rational in this?

A work colleague of mine tried to. I pointed this story out to her and she said that she could sort of see where the school administrators were coming from.

I asked her to elaborate.

She couldn't put together a coherent argument for it, (at least, one that I didn't shoot down so hard that the boss told me off for being mean. Seriously, she tried suggesting that a child who sees the kid sign his name might find a gun, pick it up and shoot it without knowing how dangerous it was...) just that she could "understand their position".

[Racket_Man]

I found the article also. one more prime example of "Zero Tollerance" run ammuck sprinkled with power hungry stupidity with a dash of WTF added for extra flavor with a small side of "THINK OF THE CHILDERN!!!!!!!"

[gremcint]

I think this would actually be a case for discrimination. would they make a child change his name if his last name was gunn? or winchester? or colt?

[bainsidhe]

Whichever school employees thought this was a good idea are now regretting the headache.

[draco664]

Whichever school employees thought this was a good idea are now regretting the headache.

You see, that's the kicker. They didn't think it was a good idea. They didn't think it was a necessary idea. They didn't think.

They simply followed policy. The Zero Tolerance policy on guns.

Instead of calling them stupid, we should be pointing out that their jobs could in fact be performed by retarded monkeys with handfuls of their own feces, if all they're doing is blindly following stated policy. Hell, if you want to splash out, hire some newly minted graduates with useless degrees to do the job at a third of the wage.

What we should be doing is scrapping the stupid policies and restoring some critical thought to the world.

[Bright Star]

What's the sign for "assholes"? Cause that's what they're being.

[Eisa]

That is beyond fucking stupid. No shit they didn't think.