{"id":55553,"date":"2025-11-21T15:21:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T15:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/55553\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T15:21:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T15:21:06","slug":"parkland-families-question-broward-schools-armed-drone-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/55553\/","title":{"rendered":"Parkland Families Question Broward Schools’ Armed Drone Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

On November 17, the Florida Department of Education announced<\/a> that three school districts, including Broward County Public Schools, would join a new statewide initiative aimed at deterring potential active shooters in K-12 schools.<\/p>\n

Developed in Texas and known as the Campus Guardian Angel program<\/a>, the program uses drones armed with less-than-lethal pepper spray bullets, flash bangs, and sirens to \u201cdistract active shooters\u201d during a potential mass shooting. The drones are flown remotely and controlled by a team of \u201celite human pilots\u201d <\/a>from an operations center in Texas. <\/p>\n

How it works: the drones would already be onsite in \u201ccharging pads\u201d at the schools and deployed in as little as 15 seconds to confront a potential shooter after a panic button has been activated. The drones use an escalation of force process and can ram into a potential shooter at up to 60 mph<\/a> (which CEO Justin Marston said is the equivalent of being hit by a baseball bat).<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, it\u2019s to save kids\u2019 lives,\u201d Marston said<\/a> during a demonstration at Florida Atlantic University in June. \u201cOur goal is to respond in five seconds, to be on the shooter in 15 seconds, and to degrade or incapacitate in 60 seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But while state officials are touting the program as a \u201csolution,\u201d the plan doesn\u2019t inspire confidence for everyone \u2014 especially some of those most affected by gun violence in Broward schools. <\/p>\n

Jackie Corin <\/a>was 17 years old when she survived the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting<\/a> on Valentine\u2019s Day 2018, in which a gunman killed 17 people \u2014 14 students and three staff members. She later co-founded March for Our Lives, a national organization dedicated to advancing gun safety legislation and advocacy.<\/p>\n

Corin, who is now 25, feels the Campus Guardian Angel program fails to address the root cause of gun violence. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery young person deserves to feel safe in their school \u2014 not because a drone might swoop in after a shooter opens fire, but because lawmakers chose to prevent that violence in the first place,\u201d Corin tells New Times. \u201cThis new drone program may make headlines, but it doesn\u2019t address the root of the crisis our generation has been living with for years.\u201d <\/p>\n

Corin notes that while the Campus Guardian Angel Program is being rolled out, Florida House Republicans are advancing HB 133<\/a>, which lowers the minimum age to buy rifles from 21 to 18, making it easier for teenagers to buy guns. She also notes that the state recently legalized open carry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf lawmakers were serious about keeping students safe, they\u2019d vote no on HB 133 and focus on preventing gun violence \u2014 not preparing to manage it with drones,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

Those concerns are echoed by Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin \u201cGuac\u201d Oliver<\/a> was killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting<\/a>. He tells New Times that he believes the program represents a \u201cfailure\u201d of political leadership and our societal priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the gun industry found a way to promote solutions that not only normalize the problem, but also create new business opportunities,\u201d Manuel says. \u201cI\u2019m afraid these are the solutions of a nation that refuses to fix the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

After their son was killed, Manuel and his wife, Patricia, founded Change the Ref<\/a>, a nonprofit that empowers future generations and advocates for gun control through creative activism. Manuel says that the Campus Guardian Program represents the \u201copposite\u201d of the work he and his wife are doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we do requires bravery, requires breaking the norm and going against something that is simply bad for all of us,\u201d Manuel says. \u201cWhat we do is the opposite of these business ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

He points to countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom as models for effective gun safety. Not only do these countries have lower rates of gun violence, but, as Manuel puts it, \u201cThere\u2019s not a business opportunity behind gun violence in any of these places.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so sorry that we live in a country \u2014 in such a great country, with all the resources, with all the opportunities to fix this easy thing to solve without wasting any money \u2014 where we do this instead and lie to the people pretending that we are solving the problem,\u201d he says. \u201cShame on us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On November 17, the Florida Department of Education announced that three school districts, including Broward County Public Schools,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-55553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-fort-lauderdale","9":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news","11":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}