Seniors at one Nebraska high school won the permission of school board members to pose with their rifles and guns in photographs for this year’s yearbook, so long as the poses are “tasteful,” administrators said.
The Omaha World-Herald first reported that the Broken Bow School Board voted unanimously this week to let students who hunted as a hobby take their yearbook photos while in possession of their weapons.
“The board, I believe, felt they wanted to give students who are involved in those kinds of things the opportunity to take a senior picture with their hobby, with their sport, just like anybody with any other hobby or sport,” Superintendent Mark Sievering told the newspaper.
Previously, the school wouldn’t allow such photographs, out of concerns about the messaging and national reports of school violence. But parents petitioned for the change, Talking Points Memo reported. And so long as the photo is “tasteful and appropriate,” then administrators are OK with the change, the newspaper said.
Students, for example, “should not submit a photograph of game shot … if the animal is in obvious distress,” the policy states, Talking Points Memo reported. Students are also directed not to point the weapons at the camera lens, or otherwise brandish them in a threatening manner.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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