On Friday the principal said the posters will be pulled back from the businesses where they were distributed this week and replaced with a toned-down version.

"No more guns," declared Doug Jacobs of the poster featuring seven senior-class members of the football team. The photo was meant to show determination and toughness.

Some 38 businesses in the southern Utah town paid $50 each to have their logo placed on the annual poster that also features the team's schedule. The money goes to support the team.

The decision to pull followed complaints that showing the heavily armed students was inappropriate.

"Most the time [the poster] is not even noticed, but this time it has the potential to be a catastrophe," said Jacobs. "We have fixed the problem."

He said he had approved the poster - with some reservation.

"When I saw it, my reaction was at first mixed, then hesitant, then cautious. The last thing we want is something that could be misconstrued."

The new poster, printed Friday, pictures members of the team dressed in their red-and-white uniforms.

Team members try to outdo the previous year's poster in conveying a sense of toughness, said Jacobs. Last year's poster featured team members dressed like Cowboys - the team's nickname. They also wore guns, but it did not raise eyebrows.

Football coach Buckey Orton said the poster did not bother him because he knew the message it was intended to convey: positive support for U.S. troops.

"The seniors wanted to do something along the lines of the Marines," he said. "Something like 'the proud, the few, the seniors.' "

He said the seniors came up with the idea and arranged to get the weapons from the Kane County Sheriff's Office.

"It was just intended to be fun," the coach said.

The football team was traveling Friday for its game with North Sevier High and members were unavailable for comment, though the mother of one team member posing in the poster said her son was disappointed with the recall order.

"He was surprised by the reaction," said Lisa Livingston, of her son, Matt, a wide receiver.

"He said, 'Mom, I didn't think people would find the material questionable,' " she said. "My guess is that those offended by [the poster] are in the minority."

Sheriff Lamont Smith said he approved the use of the weapons and vests used by his office's SWAT team.

"They [the weapons] were meant to just be props," Smith said. "They were all unloaded and someone from [the Sheriff's Office] was there to supervise their use when the picture was taken. It surprises me that people would take offense. It was just meant to show the team was tough."

But some who saw the picture did take offense and called the city's newspaper to complain.

Dixie Brunner, editor of the Southern Utah News, said she received several calls from residents expressing concern that the poster was in bad taste.

"What kind of statement do guns send?" asked Brunner, who passed on those concerns to the principal, Jacobs. "It is not appropriate for the school to promote guns."

Marina Johnson, whose 17-year-old daughter, Danielle, is a senior at the school, had not seen the poster, but said Friday from its description, it sounded extreme.

"Books and candy are OK. Automatic weapons are bad for school," said Johnson. "You don't need weapons to play football, or you wouldn't have much of an opponent."

The Shell gas station in town still had a poster displayed on its counter at noon, but clerk Susan Bray said she did not see a problem with it and customers have not complained.

"Not even those passing through," she said.

Station operator Aaron Bonham had not even noticed the poster, but quickly summed up the controversy when he heard about it.

"Only in Kanab," he said.

mhavnes@sltrib.com