Teachers in a school district in Pennsylvania have been given miniature baseball bats to protect pupils from active shooters.
Staff at Millcreek Township School District in Erie have been told to use the weapon as a last resort should a school shooting take place.
Superintendent of the school district,William Hall, told the New York Times: “We don’t want to be sitting ducks.
“We’re not just going to go hide.”
He described the 18- inch wooden bats as “symbolic,” but he added: “I think a bat could disarm a pistol with a nice swing.”
Mr Hall said he wanted to remind his staff that fighting back against armed attackers was an option.
“Part of that response is to assess your environment for anything that could be used as a potential weapon or to defend yourself,” he said.
The school has been equipped with 600 bats which cost £2.11 ($3) each.
But the controversial action has sparked outrage by many people on Twitter and Facebook.
One person described the idea as “total insanity!”
Another person said: “Just when you think it can’t get any dumber.”
Someone else said: “Pennsylvania schools literally arming teachers with sticks and stones.
"If they are going to do the least that they actually can do, what kind of training is given?”
Matthew Exley, director of the Millcreek Township Office of Emergency Management, told the Times that neither his organisation nor the Millcreek Township Police Department was involved in the decision.
The idea to provide staff with the bats came from an anonymous response to the district’s online survey sent out to the local community last month following the shooting which took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14.
One of the questions on the survey asked whether or not parents agreed with arming teachers.
Mr Hall said the bats are only meant to be used in a “hard lock down situation.”
He said the bats would be locked up in classrooms on a day to day basis.
Florida high school shooting - February 2018
The weapons are part of larger initiative to improve school safety which includes installing a concrete barrier between a parking lot and a walkway, securing building entrances and instituting regular police patrols at each of the district’s 10 schools.
The recent shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School led to school officials and lawmakers making changes across the country.
Following the attack the school ruled that all students wear clear backpacks.
Florida Legislature passed a gun control bill on March 7 to allow superintendents to arm school personnel.
But the move was rejected on Tuesday by the school board on Broward County, Florida.
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