Five Georgia high schools are preparing to test a new active-shooter response system this fall that would send remotely piloted drones through campus hallways before local police arrive.
The pilot program will use Campus Guardian Angel drones in Coffee County High School in Douglas, Forsyth Central High School in Cumming, Gainesville High School in Gainesville, River Ridge High School in Woodstock and Statesboro High School in Statesboro. Georgia lawmakers included $550,000 in the 2026 state budget for the emergency response system, which is run by the Austin, Texas-based company.
The drones would be stationed on charging pads throughout participating schools and launched during an active-shooter emergency. The company says remote pilots can use the drones to identify a shooter, transmit information to law enforcement and deploy “less-lethal” tools including pepper spray, sirens, strobe lights and kinetic strikes, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.
Campus Guardian Angel says its drones can fly 30 to 50 mph inside a school and up to 100 mph outdoors. The company argues the technology can buy critical time while officers are still responding to a shooting.
Supporters have framed the system as another layer of protection after the 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School, where two students and two teachers were killed and nine others were injured, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Critics, however, say the technology is still unproven in a real school shooting and raises questions about cost, privacy and whether drones belong on campus.
Education Week reported that eight schools in Florida and Georgia plan to pilot the system, including Deltona High School in Florida, where drones are expected to be installed for the 2026-27 school year.
