Schools hope attack drones will stop active shooters

As students settle back into classrooms around the United States, a small but growing number of schools are set to debut a new way to protect students from mass shootings: drones.

Schools in Colorado, Florida and Georgia have agreed to participate in the Campus Guardian Angel pilot program deploying drones made by Texas-based Mithril Defense. The drones are intended to deter, distract and incapacitate an attacker using sirens, strobe lights, pepper gel and, if all else fails, by ramming the shooter at speeds up to 60 mph.

“We’re like having a SWAT team in the parking lot,” said co-founder and CEO Justin Marston.

The drones, along with advances like AI gun detection software and wearable panic buttons, are part of a broader push for increased school security. But school safety experts have expressed concern about what they see as expensive, unproven technology.

“As impressive as the technology may be it's just – with my 46 years in the field – it's just not a very practical solution, especially given the cost,” said Michael Dorn, executive director of Safe Havens, a non-profit campus safety organization. “There’s just so many more productive ways to put that type of money to use in…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/