This has been a really strange news cycle week.  We started the week with Hurricane Issac wreaking havoc in the gulf (and still is) to stories on ABC NEWS program 20/20 about a father, Tommy Jordan, who decided to discipline his daughter and her “potty mouth” by destroying her computer one gunshot at a time! In between we had the news of  Hunter Spanjer, a three year old child who was asked not to use his given American Sign Language name sign in his preschool program because it resembled a “gun” motion.  (See video and links to responses from public organizations below).  We also witnessed Clint Eastwood talking to the Invisible President during the Republican National Convention. The ONLY thing that seemed to make sense this week was the event that was the most random- a hurricane! The rest just seemed to make me want to shake my head.  So, let’s dissect them, briefly.

Hurricane Issac- Glad to see that some lessons were learned from Hurricane Katrina. However, I still have a hard time fathoming why people ignore mandatory evacuations and then end up putting First Responders in harms way when they need to be rescued.

Dad shoots up daughter’s computer.   I can fully understand when a parent becomes so frustrated that they act a bit “out of the box” in order to made an impression upon their child/ teen. (I am NOT talking corporal punishment here, let’s be clear)

Such is the case of Tommy Jordan who found out that his daughter had posted a message disrespecting  all of her “parental units” with language that may make a sailor blush! Here is the video of how the dad thought that shooting his daughter’s computer was a solution.   (Notice that the number of views is in the millions)

I thought about this all night and kept coming to the same conclusion… How did it come to this? Where were all the other conversations of when this child started using “peppered language”?  I guess the thing that upset me the most was that there were soooo many guns in his home.  Which led me to worry about gun laws in our country.  In the wake of the Aurora shootings and so many others, I just couldn’t help thinking that we must find a “happy medium” when it comes to guns and still keep our families safe!

The result of watching the video last night. No sleep and this blog.

NEXT….

Hunter’s Name Sign.  Ok, this video (see below) really hit a nerve with me. As a Psychologist who has worked with deaf preschool children for eons, I cannot believe this story! Young Hunter is about to enter a preschool program. His name in American Sign Language alphabet  is with the letter H (see below).  He uses an adaptive form of his name sign that is wiggling the letter H. The staff at his preschool (Grand Island)  determined that this resembled him using a weapon and forbid him from using his own sign language name.  HE IS THREE YEARS OLD and DEAF!  

 

 

 

 

Here is the original post I read by the HUFFINGTON POST: Click here to read

National Association for the Deaf’ (NAD) posted the following on their website:  Click here to read

 

I posted this on my  SIGNING FAMILIES FACEBOOK  page and this is some of what others had to say….

 “This is stupid beyond words”

 “The administration obviously has no clue what the ADA is about, nor a Least Restrictive Environment.”

  “As if he doesn’t have enough obstacles…’

LASTLY….

Clint Eastwood talks to an Invisible Chair – I really am speechless when it comes to this news story. It just makes me want to cringe. But, instead I have now made a decision to not listen, read or view  any  negative political rhetoric.   Enough said.

 

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So, did this week’s news stories make your head spin, too?