School District Arms Teachers With Mini Baseball Bats -- No, We're Not Kidding

Pennsylvania school district hands its teachers 16-inch baseball bats to fight back against a potential shooter

As schools across the country grapple with fresh security concerns in the wake of February 14th’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, we’ve seen some pretty absurd ideas for how best to protect students and teachers in case the unimaginable happens. One school decided buckets of rocks for kids to throw at a gunman made sense while another explored installing literal bomb shelters in classrooms.

But mini baseball bats for teachers might take the stupidity cake.

As we’re all sadly aware, most school shooters opt for deadly efficient weapons like the AR-15, which was used in the Parkland shooting and meant the deaths of 17 people in a matter of minutes. That’s why it’s hard to imagine why a Pennsylvania school district thought that giving teachers mini baseball bats was the best way to defend against an actual weapon of war, yet, here we are.

Millcreek Township School District handed out mini baseball bats to 500 teachers after they attended a day of training on how to respond to school shootings. Superintendent William Hall told Erie News Now, “It is the last resort. But, it is an option and something we want people to be aware of.”

Hall says the 16-inch bats will be kept locked up in classrooms and are largely “symbolic.” Mmmk.

“Unfortunately, we’re in a day and age where one might need to use them to protect ourselves and our kids,” he says.

I’m with the guy to a point. I know schools are desperate for ways to keep students safe and as a mom who puts two elementary kids on the bus every morning with the sick thought in my head of “what if” today’s the day my worst nightmare comes true, I’m glad administrators are at least thinking of ways to protect our kids.

But you guys, a 16-inch baseball will do absolutely nothing when a rifle capable of firing several bullets in mere seconds is what a teacher’s up against. Also, having any kind of weapon in a classroom full of kids just feels…wrong? Misguided? Dangerous? All of the above? Yes, that.

Instead, us parents and amazing teen leaders and reasonable humans are hoping for and uniting behind the concept of common sense gun control, including laws that would keep weapons like the AR-15 out of the hands of those who seek to do harm. Or anyone, really. There’s no sane or logical reason for a civilian to have such a deadly weapon. And heaven knows that if someone has that weapon and the will to do horrid things with it?

A tiny baseball bat certainly won’t stop him.