From special door locks and adaptable classrooms to routine drills, schools across the country continue to adapt to new tools and procedures to protect students from mass shootings. But the latest high-tech tool to combat shooters is moving beyond the hallway floors and into the skies.
At least nine different schools in Colorado, Florida and Georgia are set to incorporate drones into their school shooting protocols. Developed by Mithril Defense, the special drones are called Campus Guardian Angel, and work alongside law enforcement and the company’s remote pilots based in their Austin office to help locate active shooters.
The Campus Guardian Angel drones may reach upwards of 50 miles an hour, zooming across a campus. In addition to helping with the location of an active shooter, the drones also have additional features including capabilities that allow them to spray pepper gel, flash strobe lights, or sound sirens in an effort to slow down a shooter. In last-resort cases, the drones can also reportedly ram into an active threat at around 60 miles an hour, CBS News reported.
“We think every school should have some kind of active-shooter suppression system, and five years from now, you wouldn’t send your kids to a school that doesn’t have one,” Mithril CEO Justin Marston told CBS News.
While school shootings have decreased from a peak of 352 shootings in 2023, shootings have still remained in the triple digits, making room for a lucrative industry aimed at school safety products. According to the Learning Policy Institute, schools in the US spend around $4 billion every year on physical safety measures including metal detectors and cameras.
Still, while the investments are going toward keeping children safe at school, some have taken to criticizing school resources going toward technology that protects students in the event of a shooting, rather than preventing one in the first place.
“Once again. Literally anything but gun control,” a user said on X about the drones.
Additionally, users on social media have also raised concerns about the possible applications of drones outside of active shootings.
Popular YouTuber and streamer Tyler Oakley said on X, “this will be used against student protesters before it will be used to protect students from school shooters.”
