A gun made it inside Campbell Middle School on Aug. 12, just over a week into the school year. Now parents want to know why the district's Vapor Wake K9 teams, trained to sniff out firearms and explosives, patrol every Cobb County high school but not a single middle school.

The Cobb County School District confirmed the gap to both WSB-TV and Atlanta News First, telling reporters it has "vapor wake canine teams at every high school" but that "those canine teams are not deployed at every middle school." The district does not use metal detectors at any of its schools.

The K9 program launched Aug. 4 with 16 dogs assigned across all Cobb high schools, including Walton, Pope, Lassiter and Wheeler in East Cobb. Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said on Aug. 3 during a back-to-school tour that the district invests $35 million annually in safety through a "layered approach" combining the K9 program, AI-enabled cameras to detect weapons and more than 80 trained officers.

"Now granted, we have one per high school," Ragsdale said at the time. "Is it just the Vapor Wake K9 or is it just the AI in the cameras to detect weapons? It's all of the above."

Less than two weeks later, a seventh grader at Campbell Middle brought a gun to his fourth-period class. James Wilson told Atlanta News First his 12-year-old son was in the room when the armed student became upset, said "You know, I'll shoot you," and brandished the weapon. Wilson said his son and a friend immediately left and told an administrator, who alerted a Cobb Schools police officer. The officer confiscated the firearm and took the student into custody.

No one was physically hurt.

Wilson said his son does not want to return to school.

As we reported Aug. 13, Principal LaEla Mitchell initially told families the firearm was "not used in any threat against students, staff or campus." The district's own investigation later contradicted that account.

District officials would not confirm to the Marietta Daily Journal whether a Vapor Wake K9 was on scene at Campbell Middle when the gun was discovered.

Brittany Chapman, a Cobb parent, told WSB-TV: "Second week into school, especially at a school, you know, in a community, how are they getting them in?"

Board of Education member Becky Sayler, who represents the Campbell Middle area, told the Marietta Daily Journal she was "very relieved" at the outcome but made no public comment on the K9 deployment gap.

The student who brought the weapon faces "the full range of legal consequences," according to the district. Specific charges were not released because of the student's age.

Families seeking answers about whether the K9 program will expand to middle schools can monitor upcoming Cobb County Board of Education meeting agendas at cobbk12.org.