Schools are adding pepper-spraying drones to help combat active shooters
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/07/28/schools-are-adding-pepper-spraying-drones-help-combat-active-shooter
Schools in at least three states will be equipped with #drones this year that can zoom through halls, smash windows and pepper-spray active shooters if teachers report a threat.
At least nine schools — three in Florida, five in Georgia and one in Colorado — will have storage boxes that house the plastic, nonlethal aircraft made by Austin-based Mithril Defense. The drones, which can be activated by teachers, are capable of reaching a shooter within 15 seconds.
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The programs continue a wave of spending on high-tech security on campuses — a multibillion dollar industry fueled by threat of school shootings. Nearly 400,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since the 1999 attack at Columbine High School in Colorado, according to a Washington Post tracker, which has recorded 435 shootings over that period.
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Teachers will have an app or classroom panic buttons to summon the drones. Mithril Defense’s professional drone pilots can then fly them remotely.
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Mithril isn’t the first company to attempt to place anti-shooter drones in school. In 2022, Axon Enterprise halted development of taser-equipped drones, after a mass resignation of its ethics board, which worried that the devices would stun innocent students or be abused by hackers.
Jaclyn Corin, who survived the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17, said she’d prefer to see officials prioritize policies that help prevent gun violence instead of responding to it.