Schools in Three States to Deploy Pepper-Spraying Drones Against Active Shooters
Key Takeaways
- •Three Florida schools, five Georgia schools and one Colorado school are included in the pilot program.
- •The drones are stored in on-campus boxes and can be remotely deployed after a teacher reports a threat.
- •Mithril Defense says the drones can reach a shooter in roughly 15 seconds and are built to navigate school hallways and break windows.
- •The drones are designed to use strobe lights, sirens, pepper gel and ramming impacts to distract and deter an attacker.
- •The Federal Aviation Administration’s standard oversight covers outdoor drone operations, while indoor drone use falls outside that framework.
At least nine schools across three U.S. states will be equipped this year with drone aircraft designed to confront active shooters, part of a new pilot program by Austin-based defense manufacturer Mithril Defense.
The schools — three in Florida, five in Georgia, and one in Colorado — will install storage boxes on campus to house the plastic, nonlethal drones. When a teacher reports a threat, the drones can be remotely activated and are capable of reaching a shooter within approximately 15 seconds, according to the Washington Post.
The aircraft are engineered to navigate school hallways and smash through windows. Once in proximity to a target, the drones deploy multiple distraction and deterrence measures, including flashing strobe lights, blaring sirens, pepper-gel spraying, and ramming into individuals at speeds of up to 60 mph.
Mithril Defense, headquartered in Austin, Texas, manufactures the drones. The company has positioned the technology as a tool to reduce response times during school shooting incidents, where minutes can be critical before law enforcement arrives. FBI active shooter studies have consistently found that many incidents end before police reach the scene, underscoring the gap that technologies like this aim to address.
The program reflects a broader trend in U.S. school safety policy. Following high-profile mass casualty events at schools across the country, districts have increasingly adopted a range of security measures, including armed resource officers, metal detectors, classroom door locks, panic-button alert systems, and automated lockdown protocols. Some law enforcement agencies already use drones for surveillance and situational awareness during emergencies, though deploying them as intervention tools inside schools represents a notable escalation in the deployment of technology for campus security.
The use of pepper-gel-dispensing drones also enters a regulatory landscape that remains evolving. While the Federal Aviation Administration regulates outdoor drone operations, including restrictions on flights over people and beyond visual line of sight, indoor drone use falls outside its standard oversight framework — a distinction that may shape how such systems are governed in school settings.
No details were provided regarding the cost of the program, the training teachers would receive to operate the system, or the specific protocols governing when drones may be deployed.
The original report was published by the Washington Post on July 28, 2026.