Target: Will Hickman, Secretary of Texas State Board of Education
Goal: Do not rely solely on drones to prevent school mass shootings.
With just a third of the year passed, the United States has already seen 24 school shootings and over a dozen deaths from these incidents. One company thinks it has an innovative solution to this epidemic of violence, but critics warn of unintended consequences. Campus Guardian Angel has deployed drones for pilot programs in Florida and Georgia. The idea is simple: utilize these drones (which are equipped with pepper spray gel and can be controlled remotely) to deter active shooters, either by spraying the gel at the suspected shooter or knocking the drone into the shooter. Advocates of the technology also argue that communication could be established with a shooter via the drones. What could possibly go wrong?
For one, the technology is not battle-tested and has not been leveraged in a real-world active shooter situation, so its true effectiveness remains unknown. Experts also caution that school children could get caught in the crossfire of the drone’s preventive actions. And the troubling possibility exists that the technology could be hacked or even used by operators acting in bad faith to inflict harm and cause chaos. A similar system proposed by another company that would have included taser-equipped drones was rejected by the company’s own ethics panel due to concerns.
Resources that could be used for other preventive measures like mental health services could receive even less funding in favor of quick fixes that have no proven track record of success. Sign the petition below to urge the next state in line for this program to proceed with care and caution.
PETITIION LETTER:
Dear Secretary Hickman,
With the rapid rise in school violence, it is tempting to cast aside approaches that require time and intensive effort in favor of flashy new ideas that would provide a quick fix. Please ensure that Campus Guardian Angel and this company’s roster of school drones do not fall into this category. Listen to the concerns of people who worry about the prospect of misuse, abuse, and unintended harm that could result from these drones. Moreover, weigh the benefits of boosting funding for addressing the root causes of this violence, such as youth mental health and easy firearms access for youth.
Show kids that they still matter to human beings and that responsibility for their safety will not be offloaded to malfunction-prone machines.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Masood Aslami
