Teachers get bats as reminder to fight back in a shooting

ERIE » A Pennsylvania school district has given its teachers small wooden baseball bats as a reminder to fight a school shooter with any weapon available should other options fail.

The superintendent of the Millcreek Township School District says the 16-inch bats are primarily symbolic, but the district did want to have a “consistent tool” for all teachers should they need to fight and attacker.

Superintendent William Hall tells the Erie Times-News the district’s revised school shooting response plan puts more emphasis on options other than “hiding and waiting.” The president of the local teachers union says he supports the move.

The district outside of Erie also had added additional security measures at school entrances.

Last month, another Pennsylvania district said it was arming teachers and students with buckets of rocks.

Cops arrest boy, 12, with loaded military-style rifle

PHILADELPHIA » Philadelphia police say a 12-yearold boy toting a loaded military-style rifle and his 19-year-old brother with a handgun have been arrested after brandishing the weapons in a dispute with another boy.

The police department posted a picture on Twitter of an officer with the seized guns.

Lt. Dennis Rosenbaum tells Philly.com the older brother had a dispute with another kid in the neighborhood, grabbed his mother’s gun and went to the boy’s house Saturday.