A school district near Erie, Pennsylvania has decided to arm school teachers — not with guns — but with baseball bats.
And by “baseball bats” — I don’t mean Louisville Sluggers. The Millcreek School District is equipping teachers with 16-inch, miniature baseball bats.
William Hall, the superintendent of Millcreek Schools, said every classroom in the district will have a mini-bat – locked away for safe keeping.
“Our previous lockdown procedure was that we would lock doors, turn the lights out and hide,” Hall told ABC News. “We didn’t talk about the other options of running or barricading… and how do you defend yourself.”
“We wanted to incorporate updated best practices, and the best practices today say you need to provide everybody with options, not just hiding,” Hall said. “Certainly hiding is the first option, running is an option and having to fight may be an option, as well.”
He took issue with the idea that the school district was arming teachers with tiny bats.
“It’s not about the teachers — it’s about the room. Anybody can use this bat in the event of a hard lockdown if they had to defend themselves,” Hall told ABCNews. “We don’t expect teachers to be chasing down a gunman with a bat. But we do expect them to protect themselves and our kids.”
A district survey found that about 70 percent of citizens supporting arming teachers with guns — but the superintendent says that’s probably not going to happen — seeing how they have 16-inch baseball bats.
Another Pennsylvania school district — in Schuykill County made national headlines when they put buckets of rocks in classrooms. The school district suggested hurling the stones at attackers in the event of a school shooting.
Why not just provide teachers with Nerf guns?