A rural Nebraska school district changed its policy to now allow high school seniors to pose with guns in their yearbook photos.

Broken Bow Public Schools new policy states students can pose with any type of prop in senior portraits, as long as they meet the school's dress code rules and the picture is "tasteful and appropriate." The updated version to the school picture policy was rolled out last week.

"We are a very rural community right in the center of Nebraska where hunting and other shooting sports are very popular," Superintendent Mark Sievering said. "We have something that is known as the One Box Pheasant Hunt that is a hunt attended by people all over the nation."

The city of Broken Bow is quite small and hunting is a major pastime and survival skill many high schoolers still participate in. The high school is the only one in the district, so the policy change does not affect many students.

"We're a town of about 3,500 people," Sievering said. "On any given year, we might have 60-70 seniors. We're not talking about hundreds of kids or several schools in a district."

Since news of the rule has reached national attention, Sievering said he received calls from concerned people across the U.S. who envisioned "a fourth-grader coming into school and having their picture taken with a gun."

"That is not what this is about," he said, noting that senior photos are not taken on the school's campus. While a ban on weapons in senior photos had never been in place, the district generally did not allow it, Sievering said. The superintendent was asked about the policy by a yearbook adviser last year and realized there wasn't one.

"I'm confident that students across the country are already taking photos like this. This is not a new thing," he said.