Inside a white stucco building in Southern California, video cameras compare faces of passersby against a facial recognition database. Behavioral analysis AI reviews the footage for signs of violent behavior. Behind a bathroom door, a smoke detector-shaped device captures audio, listening for sounds of distress. Outside, drones stand ready to be deployed and provide intel from above, and license plate readers from $8.5 billion surveillance behemoth Flock Safety ensure the cars entering and exiting the parking lot aren’t driven by criminals.

This isn't a high-security government facility. It's Beverly Hills High School.

District superintendent Alex Cherniss says the striking array of surveillance tools is a necessity, and one that ensures the safety of his students. “We are in the hub of an urban setting of Los Angeles, in one of the most recognizable cities on the planet. So we are always a target and that means our kids are a target and our staff are a target,” he said. In the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the district spent $4.8 million on security, including staff. The surveillance system spots multiple threats per day, the district said.

Beverly Hills’ apparatus might seem extreme, but it’s not an outlier. Across the U.S., schools are rolling out similar surveillance systems they hope will keep them free of the horrific and unceasing tide of mass shootings. There have been 49 deaths from gunfire on school property this year. In 2024, there were 59, and in 2023 there were 45, per Everytown for Gun Safety. Between 2000 and 2022, 131 people were killed and 197 wounded at schools in the U.S., most of them children. Given those appalling metrics, allocating a portion of your budget to state of the art AI-powered safety and surveillance tools is a relatively easy decision.

“This community wants … whatever we can do to make our schools safer,” Cherniss said. “If that means you have armed security and drones and AI and license plate readers, bring it on.”

Skeptics, however, said there’s little proof AI technologies are going to bring those numbers down significantly, and they ruin trust with students. A 2023 American Civil Liberties Union report found that eight of the 10 largest school shootings in America since Columbine occurred on campuses with surveillance systems. Chad Marlow, a senior policy counsel at the ACLU who authored the report, said that even with the advent of AI-powered tools, there’s a dearth in independent research to verify it’s any better at preventing tragedies. “It’s very peculiar to make the claim that this will keep your kids safe,” he said.

The report also found that the surveillance fostered an atmosphere of distrust: 32% of 14 to 18-year-old students surveyed said they felt like they were always being watched. In focus groups run by the ACLU, students said they felt less comfortable alerting educators to mental health issues and physical abuse. Marlow argues that’s a lousy tradeoff. “Because kids don't trust people they view as spying on them, it ruptures trust and actually makes things less safe,” he said.

“You can't argue with the results because you're saving lives.”

The Beverly Hills district doesn’t see it that way. “There is no amount of money that we can invest in safety and security in Beverly Hills Unified School District that our parents, our community would disagree with,” Cherniss said.

Nicole Gorbacheva, who graduated from Beverly Hills High earlier this year, said she supported increased security in a district that has previously received bomb threats, break-ins and, more recently, antisemitic threats. Earlier this year, someone drew a swastika on the sidewalk outside one of the district’s elementary schools. “Over the years, I watched BHHS shift from a more relaxed, open campus into a closed and much more protected environment,” she........

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