A Pennsylvania school district has decided to arm its teachers — with miniature baseball bats.

According to NBC News, the Millcreek Township School District was training about 500 teachers on what to do during a school shooting and handed out the 16-inch bats — about half the size of a regulation bat and unswingable in the usual way.

District Superintendent William Hall told WCIU, the NBC affiliate in Erie, that the bats are primarily “symbolic” but still defended them as usable weapons in a school-shooting situation.

“It is the last resort,” he said. “But, it is an option and something we want people to be aware of.”

A district elsewhere in Pennsylvania said in March that it would arm teachers with river rocks.

Jo Ellen Barish, president of Milcreek’s Parent Teacher Association, wasn’t impressed by her district’s miniature-bat plan either.

“It’s not going to make some shooter stop and say, ‘Hey, I probably shouldn’t go in and do this,’” she told NBC.

Pennsylvania PTA board member Bonnie Fagan was equally skeptical.

“Am I going to get out my bat that’s in a locked cabinet or my bucket of rocks or slide something under the door to lock it to stop someone?” she said. “How effective is any of this?”

Pennsylvania law makes it illegal to possess a gun on school grounds.

The miniature bats cost the Millcreek district $1,800.



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