Some schools in Florida, Georgia and Colorado will be equipped with drones this year that can go through halls, smash windows and pepper-spray active shooters if teachers report a threat.
The program follows a wave of high-tech campus security spending. https://t.co/kyQELu9jkW pic.twitter.com/EFqqL0ZjJz
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 29, 2026
Teachers will have an app or classroom panic buttons to summon the drones. Mithril Defense’s professional drone pilots can then fly them remotely.
The drones have been tested in simulations but never by a shooting.
Justin Marston, Mithril’s founder and CEO, said the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two teachers were killed in 2022 as law enforcement waited over an hour to enter the classroom, inspired the project.
When he learned of the Russian and Ukrainian military forces using cheap drones to attack each other, Marston said he figured a nonlethal version might’ve saved lives in Uvalde.
“The first 120 seconds are incredibly critical, because that’s when most of the shooting happens,” Marston said.
While the drones could be activated any time, they’re meant specifically for potentially lethal situations. The drones wouldn’t break up a schoolyard fight, Marston said. But if one of the students pulled a knife, they could.
— Cole Reynolds in Schools are adding pepper-spraying drones to help combat active shooters