• Read the latest stories on the sniper case

By STEPHEN MANNING
Associated Press Writer

BOWIE, Md. (AP) - Anxious parents accompanied their children to school or kept them at home Tuesday, a day after a sniper linked to the murder of six adults critically wounded a middle-school pupil. The governor pleaded with the gunman to surrender and “stop this insane killing.”

“I can’t stop going to work, the children can’t stop going to school,” said Henry Ollie, 48, leading his 12-year-old son, Charles, to the front door of Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie, where the latest shooting happened. Ordinarily, Charles takes the bus.

Some parents served as volunteer guards, watching over intersections. But it appeared many decided to keep their children home as Monday’s shooting fueled heightened anxiety for families in already nervous suburbs. Some buses arriving at schools carried fewer students than usual.

Tasker student Jessica McFadden, 13, said she knew of at least three friends whose parents were keeping them home. She came to school clutching a pot of pink flowers and a teddy bear, a thank-you present for her teacher for her help Monday.

Her mother, Diane McFadden, said she decided to let her daughter come to school because “they can’t live in fear. That’s why we’re back. You can’t stop what you’re doing because of some sick person.”

Said another 13-year-old, Amanda Wiedmaier: “Usually I’m embarrassed to walk around and hold my mom’s hand, but I don’t care today.”

Gov. Parris Glendening appealed for an end to the attacks.

“This is a person who is shooting elderly men, shooting women, and now shooting little children,” Glendening said. “And I really think if there is any message, it is for this individual to turn himself in, to stop this insane killing.”