High school senior wins fight for controversial rifle yearbook photo

A high school senior in New York became the center of a new kind of debate on gun control.

Rebekah Rorick submitted this photo by Viscosi Photography to her high school's yearbook committee, but they rejected it because it shows her holding a rifle. Rebekah told WTEN she sent it in because she was just expressing herself.

"I've seen people in photos with their guitars and horses and cars and I'm like, 'This is just another hobby -- this is a family hobby,' and that's what I thought when I took the photo."

The school didn't agree and rejected the photo.

"And I was like, 'Why?' And they are like, 'Because there's a gun in it.' And I'm like, 'But it's a hunting rifle. I'm wearing camo. I have my dog with me.' I was ready to cry. I didn't know what I was going to do. The only thing I thought to do was address it."

The teen and her dad went to the Board of Education and as part of their argument they pointed to a senior photo from 2012 that included a hunting rifle and was allowed in the yearbook.

Eventually, they convinced members Rebekah's picture was appropriate.

A school official said, "She is not holding the gun in a malicious manner. She is not pointing it anywhere. It's to me, in my opinion, a nice photograph of a young lady in the Adirondack region that enjoys hunting."

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