School District lifts ban, OKs guns in Big Lake trapshooting team's yearbook photo

School officials in Big Lake, Minn., changed course Thursday and decided that guns can be included in the high school trapshooting team's photo in the yearbook.

The about-face came one day after the team's coach, Rhonda Eckerdt, said she learned from the athletic director that the photo was banned from the yearbook because the students were holding their shotguns, which violated district policy against firearms in school photos.

Eckerdt said the team was offered to have a photo in the yearbook but without its guns.

In the wake of the dispute, district administration "accepted a request [Thursday] morning to change a handbook policy concerning the display of guns in yearbook photos," Superintendent Steve Westerberg said in a statement.

The policy now includes an exception specifically for the trapshooting team.

"It is important to remember that a school district has rules and procedures that need to be followed," Westerberg added.

He then went on to lament the "intense conversation around this topic on social media and the phone calls and e-mails we received" because they "only delayed the process."

Westerberg said this dispute over the team's yearbook photo had come up before. Last year the team "chose not to" submit a photo without the firearms being included, he said.

Eckerdt said Thursday night that she is "very happy with the outcome. I certainly didn't expect it to get blown up like it did, but me 'asking' for the change the last five years wasn't working."

Here is the new policy:

"All photos, written text, and artwork must conform to school policies and are subject to approval by the yearbook adviser and/or administration. Photos and artwork that violate school policy, display firearms, weapons, drugs, alcohol, inappropriate gestures or poses, and revealing or obscene clothing may be edited or excluded without permission or notification. Exception given to our school-sponsored trap-shooting team which will be allowed to have team pictures in the yearbook, team poster displayed in the school, and any approved photos taken by yearbook staff."

Team members, coaches and parents argued that the guns should be viewed as equipment used in the sport, much like a baseball player holding a bat in a photo.

Parent Rick Anderson said that "political correctness has gone way overboard."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482