Hunter

I'm sure most of you have already seen or heard this story. Three year old Hunter from Nebraska is Deaf and has a name sign. Problem is - his name sign resembles making a gun shape with his hands. (You can see the sign for Hunt at the www.aslpro.com website). Hi school has problems with that, and prefers that he spell his name using the ASL alphabet.

I don't know about Hunter, but if my Ashley was told to letter sign her name rather than use her name sign, she certainly couldn't have done it at age 3. Heck, she can't do it now, but she knows her name sign and uses it daily.

To me, a name sign is as personal as the name itself. Asking a Deaf person to change their name sign would be tantamount to asking you to change your name completely. And it is just plain wrong.

Here's a great article from Deaf mother, Karen Putz, that I believe sums up the issue very well:

When a School Tells You to Change Your Child's Name

So what is your take on this? Should Hunter change his name sign, or should the school stop overreacting?

Here is Hunter's Facebook page