Several schools in the United States will begin the next school year with a new measure to prevent shootings: using drones equipped with pepper gel, flashing lights and sirens.
American media indicate that this measure is called Campus Guardian Angel (Campus Guardian Angel) and will be implemented in schools in Colorado, Florida and Georgia.
They also explain that these drones will be deployed “in seconds” and will seek to enter classrooms ahead of police officers, or even before authorities reach the schools.
As a last resort, these drones can ram the attacker at almost 100 kilometers per hour.
They can travel the hallways at about 80 kilometers per hour, piloted remotely from the manufacturer’s headquarters, Mithril Defense, in Austin, Texas, with the goal of locating an attacker within 15 seconds.
In Georgia and Florida, drones are funded by the states themselves.
In Colorado, on the other hand, the John Adams Academy school pays for the tests with private funds, after the county waived its planned US$200,000 contribution. For its part, Louisiana passed a law to test them in four centers.
The installation of the drones responds to concern about school shootings in the United States, including the one in Columbine, Colorado, in 1999, which left 13 dead, and the one in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, with 17 dead, two of the deadliest in the country.
A more recent one, in Winder, Georgia, in 2024, left four dead, and its author, Colt Gray, 16, was sentenced this Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.