Pepper-spray drones in schools raise legal and privacy questions

Schools in Florida, Georgia and Colorado are deploying or planning to deploy remote-controlled drones designed to respond to active shooters, raising questions about liability, student rights and privacy.

Florida lawmakers allocated more than $550,000 last year to install Mithril Defense drones in three high schools, and the state has committed more money for a Department of Education pilot program. Five Georgia high schools are slated to receive the drones for about half a million dollars, while a Colorado public charter school has self-funded its system.

Mithril says the drones can respond in 15 seconds or less after a teacher triggers an alert through an app or panic button. The drones can use sirens, strobe lights, pepper gel or physical impact, and the system has not yet encountered a live shooting situation.

The deployments could test how courts view school liability if a student, first responder or officer is mistakenly injured. They also raise questions about whether footage recorded during a false alarm could be used as evidence or violate student rights.

Read the full story at findlaw.com.