UNIVERSITY PARK, Texas — A Texas school district is considering integrating drones into its active shooter prevention plans.
Campus Guardian Angels, an Austin-based startup, demonstrated its drone technology Monday night at a Highland Park ISD elementary school, Houston Public Media reports. The drones can navigate stairs and hallways, drop pepper spray or flashbangs, or collide with an attacker if necessary, says company CEO Justin Marston.
“So our goal is — we get cued because a teacher presses a button on an app, or they hit a silent panic button, and then all of the video cameras and a map of the school comes up in our app center,” Marston continued. “And from that moment, our goal is to respond in five seconds to find and be on the shooter in 15 seconds.”
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The drones, which are controlled by pilots wearing headsets inside a control center at the company’s headquarters, can also break windows. If one is taken down by an attacker, the company says additional drones will deploy fast enough to take down the target within one minute.
“Anywhere where there’s a security guard and anywhere there’s somebody carrying a gun going into harm’s way, there’s close air support for you,” said Bill King, Campus Guardian Angel’s Chief Tactical Officer.
Mark Rowden, Highland Park ISD’s police chief, said he was impressed by the demonstration, noting the camera-equipped drones could help identify an armed intruder from a safe distance.
“[It] gives us situational awareness, so far as what we’ve got and what we’re going to encounter, that, in what we do, is absolutely imperative,” he said.
Campus Guardian Angels: Drones More Affordable Than Armed Security Officer
The company’s founders say they came up with the idea of responding to active shooters with drones following the Robb Elementary School school shooting and the ongoing war in Ukraine, according to CBS.
Texas House Bill 3 (HB 3) was passed by the Texas Legislature in 2023 following the Uvalde shooting, requiring all K-12 schools in the state to have a school-employed armed officer or contracted police officer on campus during school hours. Critics have called HB 3 an “unfunded mandate,” highlighting the inadequate financial support provided to implement its requirements. Currently, the bill allocates only $15,000 per campus for security personnel and $10 per student, amounts that many school districts argue falls drastically short of the actual expenses involved. Less than half of the school districts in Texas have complied with HB 3’s armed security requirement, with about 52% requesting and receiving a good cause exception waiver, reports Houston Public Media.
The company says that while their drones don’t replace armed guards, they offer districts that might be struggling to pay for armed security officers another way to improve campus security. According to the company, its drones cost $15,000 for a box of six plus $4 per month per student. Each drone is expected to remain operational for about five years.
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During a meeting of Texas’ Senate K-16 education committee earlier this month, Marston testified that the drones could help secure a school before security officers or police arrive. He said the drones themselves can be used as weapons and that they would essentially act as police dogs, “but more difficult to shoot.”
“If you get hit at 60 to 70 miles an hour by a drone, it is less lethal, but it will cause significant injury. We would send multiple waves of those until the person is incapacitated or law enforcement arrives,” he said. “If a shooter walks into a school that we’re defending, our goals are to respond in five seconds, confront the shooter in 15 seconds, then degrade or incapacitate the shooter in 60 seconds.”
The drones have been tested in some Florida school districts, as well as Boerne ISD, which is located near San Antonio. Boerne ISD Security Chief Rick Goodrich told the Senate committee that he believes drones are affordable and can help buy time, according to Houston Public Media.
“There are districts in this state where one officer is covering as many as two or three campuses at the same time,” he said.
