CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ga. -- A 7th-grade boy in Canton was arrested Tuesday after bringing a 22-caliber gun to school. Another student saw the gun and told a teacher.

Peter Laczko's son is an eighth-grade student at Dean Rusk Middle School in Canton.

When he heard the news that a student brought a gun to campus, he got worried.

"We live in a really safe community, but whoever heard of Columbine," Laczko said.

The gun is described as a .22-caliber Derringer, no bigger than a hand and able to hold two bullets, but the small weapon has created big problems for a 7th-grade student at Rusk.

School administrators say the 12-year old boy brought the weapon to school. Another student became aware of the gun about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday during second period, and told a teacher.

"A subsequent search after retrieval of the weapon found some ammunition on his person and in his locker," said Mike McGowan, director of communications for Cherokee County Schools.

Administrators confiscated the gun, the live ammunition and placed the boy under arrest. A letter was sent home to parents notifying them about what happened and reinforcing school board policy that weapons are explicitly prohibited at school.

Peter Laczko said he hopes administrators make sure something like this doesn't happen again.

"Things like this should act like a wake-up call to beef up security, to do something," Laczko said.

Laczko's son said he feels safe at school.

"I wasn't that scared because I knew the school police would come," Matthew Laczko said.

Cherokee County School administrators said this is the first time this year at any of its 40 schools that a student has brought a firearm to campus.

"We don't have any reason to believe he was planning on harming anybody," McGowan said.