New drone technology could help make schools safer

AUSTIN, Texas - Some new technology has been unveiled in Austin in an effort to make schools safer.

A local company has developed drones that they say could actually stop an active shooter and save lives.

Campus Guardian Angel

What we know:

The demonstration took place inside the old Pease Elementary School on Sunday.

Campus Guardian Angel's co-founders say that these high-tech drones can slow down or even stop an active shooter by cutting through windows, deploying flash bangs or pepper launchers, or even hitting the shooter with the drone to injure them.

The company's founders got the idea after seeing drones being used in the Russia-Ukraine war and say this technology could be crucial in the first couple minutes of an active shooter situation.

The drones would be placed on individual campuses but operated from a hub in Austin and are used in combination with digital mapping of campuses.

What they're saying:

"We're using drones as part of a first response with law enforcement to get to a shooter faster and be able to stop them from killing kids," said co-founder and CEO Justin Marston.

"This is the only way to take less lethal effects and go up against someone with a lethal weapon. You can't do that with a human,' said co-founder Bill King. 

King is a veteran who spent 32 years with the Navy SEALs and compared his military experience to what his company is trying to do.

"We're doing predator drone strikes where we were controlling things from thousands of miles away, similar to what we're going to do here," King said.

"Our goal is to respond in five seconds, to be on the shooter in 15 seconds, and to degrade or incapacitate in 60 seconds," Marston said.

Boerne ISD partnership

Local perspective:

Boerne ISD, a district in Kendall County about 82 miles from Austin, has already signed on to the Campus Guardian Angel program.

"If that drone can say, hey, he's in the second floor, third room on the left, then not only decreases my response time to stop casualties, but it also gives us a better opportunity to treat those that have already been wounded in that attack," said Rick Goodrich, chief of safety & security for Boerne ISD.

Big picture view:

The company says that this technology could have made a difference in a shooting like the one in Uvalde in 2022. 

Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the May 24, 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School. Nearly 400 officers from various agencies waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman.

"Being in a school district that was very close to Uvalde…that worry is very prevalent in my mind. And so having technology like this come in and be that extra layer of security that we can have for students, it puts me at peace of mind," said Boerne High School senior Teagan Maquet.