Senior pictures are meant to capture the upcoming graduates personality.  Many students use Senior pictures to showcase a musical instrument that they have mastered, a particular sport that has been played during high school or their favorite hobby.  Living in the Midwest, I didn't even think twice about seeing Seniors posing with a gun and their favorite dog.   After all, hunting is just a way of life in the Midwest.  My son even had some classmates (Bryce and Kaydi, pictured in this story and both recent graduates from Tea Area High School)  that took their Senior pictures showing off their favorite hobby of hunting. So I guess I was just a bit surprised that a school in central Nebraska just recently gave Seniors the OK to pose with firearms for their yearbook photo....along with the stipulation that it must be done in good taste.

Kaydi's Senior Picture
Kenzie Oswald
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The new school policy, adopted on a 6 - 0 vote by the Broken Bow school board, states that students now have the freedom to pose with props of their choice, as long as the photo features students adhering to the school dress code and the picture is "tasteful and appropriate".

The school's superintendent Mark Sievering, is aware that hunting, skeet and trap shooting are all popular in the community and firearms are quite common.  The city of Broken Bow, Nebraska has a population of only about 3,500 people, so the Senior class averages around 60 to 70 students.  Still, after the school board approved the new policy, Sievering received calls from across the nation with the concern that "a fourth-grader would be coming into school and having their picture taken with a gun."   Sievering states that that is not the case, because students take their Senior pictures off campus.

Broken Bow High School didn't previously have a ban on students taking pictures with firearms, but when a recent yearbook adviser asked if the Senior pictures could be used, a new policy was then voted into place by the school board and administrators, again with the stipulation that the photos would be in "good taste and appropriate".   For example, "students will not be allowed to use a photo of wild game that has just been shot by the student if the animal is in obvious distress".  Matthew Haumont, a Broken Bow school board member stresses that the photos will need to be respectful of the shooting sports.

Administrators along with the photographers who take the pictures of the Seniors posing with their firearms, should continue to realize that hunting is an important hobby to the students and those that bring them in for their Senior pictures, have a great respect for their firearms.

Bryce With Gun
Heidi Adams
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Source:  Omaha.com and ABC News

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