AUSTIN, Texas — A new bill aimed at beefing up school security could include armed drones guarding Texas schools.
The bill filed by State Rep. Ryan Guillen will be taken up during the 89th Texas Legislative session that begins in January.
Guillen’s bill focuses on strengthening safety and mental health support in Texas public schools by using armed security officers, which has already been a challenge for many school districts. It also offers using drones armed with “less lethal” capabilities like pepper spray “or other mechanisms” as an alternative.
Included in the bill is an increase in school safety funding from $10 per student to $100, which schools could spend on expenses like hiring security guards or starting a drone program. The flexibility would allow schools to meet the requirement of an officer or drone for every 200 students.
There would still be a baseline of at least one armed officer on campus with the bill.
The idea of armed drones isn’t new. Taser developer Axon said in 2022 that it was building drones that would “prevent the next Uvalde, Sandy Hook or Columbine.”
Axon, which sells Tasers and police body cameras, initially floated the idea of a police drone to its ethics board and a group of experts. However, some were worried about weaponizing drones in over-policed communities of color.
Axon founder and CEO Rick Smith said he made the idea of a Taser-equipped drone in schools public after he was “catastrophically disappointed” in the response by law enforcement at Robb Elementary School, which led to 19 students and two teachers being killed.
Smith added that a public conversation about how police can safely confront attackers could increase safety.
“This is an idea that should get into the public’s consciousness while our minds are open to it,” Smith said. “The world is going to change and people are going to forget this pain … People are going to focus a lot more on what could go wrong, rather than the pain of this problem we need to solve.”
Texas is projected to have about a $20 billion surplus when it begins its legislative session on Jan. 14, 2025.