School District to Allow Students to Pose With Guns

Students in a Nebraska school district have another item they may now incorporate into their senior portraits: their guns.

At the request of parents, Broken Bow Public Schools will now allow students to pose with their firearms in their senior yearbook photos. Until now, the district had no official policy on firearms in the pictures, but in practice did not permit students to pose with weapons.

Under the new policy, students are encouraged to pose with items that illustrate their hobbies and interests, but pictures will still be approved or denied on a case-by-case basis. It specifically prohibits students from pointing the gun at the camera or posing with an animal that is in “obvious distress.” The policy also forbids drugs, alcohol, tobacco and scantily clad students.

According to the Omaha World Herald, the school board voted 6-0 to approve the new policy.

Broken Bow Public Schools Superintendent Matt Sievering told KOLN-TV: “We decided that we didn’t want to have any offensive depictions of firearms but, as we talked about it and the board talked about it, we could tell that there was a sense that to allow a student to have a firearm, as long as it was done in a tasteful manner in terms of a hunting or sporting type picture that that might be okay.”

Broken Bow, Neb. is a rural community of about 3,500. Broken Bow High School typically has a graduating class of about 50-60.

Ken Myers, the Broken Bow school board president, told KOLN-TV, that hunting is a big part of the community. “We have the 1 Box Shooting Club, a great trap range and sporting clays range,” said Myers. “A lot of youth are interested in that so that brings up firearms, I guess, a little bit more to the forefront along with the hunting.”

Matthew Haumont, a school board member, told the Herald that he is happy that shooting sports will be portrayed in a “respectful” fashion: “For me as a sportsman, I think the policy’s important because it allows those kids who are doing those things a chance to demonstrate what they’re doing and to celebrate that. I think that’s important and fair in our country.”

Amanda Gailey, the director of Nebraskans Against Gun Violence, told the Herald that the organization is not concerned about the policy “as long as the photographs are being taken off campus and the photo sessions are supervised.”