Learn More About Civil Rights Law in Bath, Michigan

Bath is an unincorporated community in Bath Township, Clinton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated just north of exit 92 off Interstate 69, about 5 miles (8.0 km) north of East Lansing. The community itself has no elected officials nor any separate governmental functions from the township and only serves to generally describe the central business district of Bath Township centered at Webster and Clark roads. Bath is also the home of the 2007 Class C Boys Basketball State Champions. On May 18, 1927, in what became known as the Bath School disaster, Andrew Kehoe, a cash-strapped farmer and local school board member killed his wife, bombed every building on his farm before explosives he had secretly hidden under the school building located in the central business district went off. He later drove to the school in a truck rigged with more explosives which he detonated next to the school superintendent. In all, Kehoe killed 44 people and himself, in the worst school violence in U.S. history. Only half of the 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of explosives set under the school went off, probably greatly lowering the death toll. Thirty-eight out of the 314 students, three teachers, the superintendent, the postmaster and a local farmer assisting at the scene were killed. Most of the dead were students from second to sixth grade. Fifty-eight others were injured.