A school district in the state of Pennsylvania has decided to take action to increase the security and safety of students in the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting, however they’re doing so in a rather unconventional way.

Instead of arming teachers with guns, they’re arming them with baseball bats.

You just can’t make this stuff up, folks.

CBS News is reporting:

In the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, a school district in a suburb of the northwest Pennsylvania city of Erie is arming its 500 teachers with baseball bats, reports CBS Erie affiliate WSEE-TV. “It is the last resort,” said Millcreek Schools Superintendent William Hall, “but it is an option and something we want people to be aware of.”

According to Hall, the 16-inch bats were distributed to each teacher following an in-service training day on how to respond to school shootings.

“We passed them out, with the goal being we wanted every room to have one of these,” said Hall. “Unfortunately, we’re in a day and age where one might need to use them to protect ourselves and our kids.”

Hall says the bats are primarily “symbolic”, but are now an option for teachers to use, should they need to fight back in a school shooting.

Millcreek Education Association president Jon Cacchione says he supports the decision to arm teachers with bats, which will be locked up in each classroom.

“This is a tool to have in the event we have nothing else,” said Cacchione. “Part of the formula now is to fight back, and so I think the bats that were provided for the staff were symbolic of that.”

Hall says it’s just one of several initiatives in the works to ensure student safety, including a concrete barrier around the high school walkway and additional security measures at each entrance.

It’s not legal in Pennsylvania for teachers to be armed with guns, however the district conducted a survey that found 70 percent of people were okay with such a measure if that changes in the future.

It’s unfortunate that the teachers are being limited by law from being able to possess the means of adequate self-defense that could protect them and their students from harm.

Sure, a bat is better than nothing but when an assailant is armed with a rifle that can deal out damage from a distance, a close combat weapon isn’t going to be of much use.

The solution here is more good guys with guns, so hopefully this law will be reversed in the future to allow teachers to have firearms available for use.