Weapons-detecting dogs are coming to Cobb County middle schools. The Board of Education voted 5-2 on Thursday, Sept. 17, to spend up to $1.2 million on five new Vapor Wake K-9 teams.

The dogs and their handlers will rotate among the district's 26 middle schools, including eight in East Cobb. The district already stations 16 Vapor Wake dogs at its high schools.

Superintendent Chris Ragsdale pushed for the expansion after a string of weapons incidents during the 2026-27 school year. A seventh grader brandished a loaded gun and threatened a classmate at Campbell Middle School in Smyrna on Aug. 12, Atlanta News First reported. Two Wheeler High School students were arrested Sept. 3 for bringing a gun to campus. Ragsdale also told the board a middle schooler had been caught with a loaded firearm carrying a high-capacity drum magazine, though he did not name the school or date.

"It's been disappointing and concerning," Ragsdale said at the Sept. 17 meeting, according to East Cobb News. Elsewhere in the meeting, he elaborated that middle schoolers are increasingly part of the pattern of students bringing guns to school, the Marietta Daily Journal reported.

Most of the $1.2 million will come from the district's fund balance, with equipment costs covered by the Cobb Education Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax VI (ESPLOST VI), according to East Cobb News.

The new handlers will join the Cobb school district police force and receive patrol vehicles. Marc Smith, the district's chief operations officer, said the dogs could be on campus within a couple of months after handlers are hired and trained, the Marietta Daily Journal reported.

A split vote

Board members Becky Sayler and Nichelle Davis, both Democrats, voted against the measure. They had moved to delay the vote until after an executive session so they could ask security questions without exposing sensitive details publicly. That delay motion failed. Democrat Tre Hutchins voted with Sayler and Davis to delay, but the four Republican members defeated it. On the final vote, Hutchins sided with the majority to approve the funding.

Sayler said she wanted more data on the program's effectiveness before committing more money. She told the board she had emailed Ragsdale about the proposal but never received a response, according to the Marietta Daily Journal.

Ragsdale countered that he had given board members the agenda item two weeks in advance and that email was not appropriate for security discussions because emails are subject to open-records requests.

Board member David Chastain, who attended remotely, sided with Ragsdale, calling the decision straightforward, according to the Marietta Daily Journal.

Background

The district first received eight Vapor Wake dogs in 2025 through a state school security grant after the deadly shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County. In November 2025 the board approved $2 million to expand the program to cover all 16 high schools. The district spends $35 million annually on student and staff safety, a figure that includes the K-9 program, AI-enabled weapons-detection cameras and school resource officers.

James Wilson, whose 12-year-old son was threatened at gunpoint at Campbell Middle School, told Atlanta News First in August that the incident left lasting harm. "They were hurt emotionally, spiritually. My son doesn't want to go back to school," Wilson said.

No next board meeting date or contract timeline has been announced beyond Smith's estimate of a couple of months for deployment.