States consider drones to stop school shootings

By Ella Dawson
The Center Square

The first drones intended to stop school shootings from Campus Guardian Angel are set to go live Friday at Deltona High School.

Florida’s legislature has appropriated $557,000 to have drones in the Broward, Leon, and Volusia school districts, with Deltona High School being the first. Georgia has also appropriated $550,000 for drones in five of their high schools, yet to be decided by the State’s Department of Education.

“Georgia went from first conversations to funding a pilot through the legislature in maybe 120 days,” CEO and co-founder of Campus Guardian Angel Justin Marston told The Center Square, which is lightning speed for Congress.

Many other states are interested in piloting these drones. So far, Florida and Georgia have appropriated the funds to test out the drones for a year, with hope of expanding. The drones cost about $8 per student for the pilot program. If the schools want to keep the drones, the cost drops to $4 per student.

“We expect to see things in Texas next year, we’ve had good conversations with the Republican Senate caucus, and done a demonstration for them,” Marston continued. Campus Guardian Angel is based in Austin, Texas. The Texas State legislature only meets every two years. In the meantime, some parents in Spring Branch Independent School District, near Houston, are actively working to fundraise for these drones independently.

Estra Cockrell headed the fundraising committee in Texas.

“I was just blown away by their technology and what they can do,” she told Click 2 Houston.

“We’re working in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Illinois, a bunch of other states,” Marston said, mentioning promising movement in Louisiana.

The way Campus Guardian Angel is deploying drones is like a “paradigm shift” for many people — like “comparing Uber to a Formula One car,” Marston says. But he is convinced it is the only way to stop school shootings. “It sounds fantastical, but it needs to be instantaneous, it needs to be elite, it needs to be scalable, and it needs to be affordable. I can’t think of any other way to do that than using robots and centralizing talent.”

Originally, Marston’s light bulb moment started with war. “I had the idea looking at how successful small drones were against people with guns in Ukraine.” The difference with Campus Guardian Angel’s drones is that the goal is to incapacitate, not kill. The drones can trigger loud sirens, strobe lights, spray pepper, and even knock active shooters down.

“We could put less lethal effects on these drones and they would be incredibly effective against people with guns.” Marston said this was the first aha moment.

The second involved enabling pilots to be a thousand miles away instead of a few miles away. In other words, pilots at Campus Guardian Angel headquarters in Austin could control drones operating in a high school in Florida.

Marston has a background in entrepreneurial pursuits, starting four successful companies.

“I pinged Bill on LinkedIn,” Marston told The Center Square. Bill King is the other co-founder of Campus Guardian Angel. He spent 32 years as a navy SEAL, serving in elite teams and becoming Senior Enlisted Leader for all SEAL teams. Martson pitched to King: “Hey I’ve got this idea, and I know the tech side to make this work, but I need someone with tactical experience.”

King worked with these drones in combat zones. His role is to train with local law enforcement to work alongside the drones in a school shooter situation. Most school shootings are over in 120 seconds. “Instead of running around with no idea where the shooter is on the campus,” Marston said, referring to the police, “we tell them.”

Law enforcement will have access to an app created by Campus Guardian Angel that taps into the security cameras already existing in schools. This map is also projected on ceiling-high monitors at Guardian Angel’s operating center in Texas. The demonstration of the app looks just like a video game — and in fact uses Unreal Engine, the basis of Fortnite — where the user can walk through each room of the school and zoom out for a top-down view. The threat can be marked in the app and communicated directly with other app users.

When there is an active shooter on campus, a student or teacher signals a panic button. Through the camera system, the shooter is identified. Then, the pilots deploy the drones, and law enforcement is on its way.

“Our central team is a mix of ex-law enforcement, the best 911 operators, SWAT guys, and people from the Elite Special Forces Unit,” Marston said. In addition to these players, the company has five of the top ten drone racing pilots in North America — “these guys are video gamers.” Professional drone racing takes astonishing talent, as any video footage of ESPN competitions can attest.

Come next school year, everything should be set to see what these drones can do in Florida and Georgia schools.