BIG LAKE, Minn. – The trapshooting team at Big Lake High School may be barred from their school’s yearbook because the team posed with their guns in the photo.
The school’s athletic director informed team coach Rhonda Eckerdt via email Wednesday that having the firearms in the picture violated school policy, reports WCCO. As a result, administrators are currently not planning to include the photo in the yearbook.
Parents, coaches, and players contend that the guns are a piece of equipment in the same manner that the baseball team’s bats are.
“Just because there’s a gun involved doesn’t make it a dangerous sport and they’re not criminals,” parent Rick Anderson told WCCO.
The trapshooting team was hosting a fundraiser at the Pizza Ranch in Monticello, and conversation quickly turned from raising money to the issue of the photo. While the team has been around for some time, this would have been the first issue of the yearbook in which the team was included.
“This is my final year, I’m a senior this year,” trapshooting team member Wyatt Stone told WCCO. “So it’ll be frustrating to not see this picture in my final yearbook.”
The athletic director told Eckerdt via email that the team could have a new photo taken without the guns, or asked that a written proposal be submitted outlining why the current photo should be included. He also offered to meet with coaches on Thursday to discuss the issue.
“I think politically correctness has gone way overboard. I don’t know how else to put it,” Anderson told WCCO. “I thought it was ridiculous, absolutely. I couldn’t believe it.”
The deadline for photo additions to the yearbook is Monday. Some parents told WCCO they intend to attend a Thursday school board meeting to make their case.
“It is a school-sanctioned activity,” parent Derek Birdsall told KSTP. “It’s not like the kids are doing anything with it. They are literally just holding a gun.”