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School attendance near normal in D.C. schools
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Despite an ominous message in a letter found near the scene of Saturday's sniper killing in Virginia, schools opened Wednesday in communities around Washington with no significant drop in attendance reported. Preliminary reports from school districts in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia indicated that attendance was lower than normal in most cases, but not significantly off. The warning that children "are not safe anywhere, at any time," was contained in a letter found in the woods behind a Ponderosa restaurant in Ashland, Virginia, where a 37-year-old man was shot and critically wounded Saturday night. Montgomery County, Maryland, Police Chief Charles Moose read the chilling threat Tuesday, and said that part of the letter's contents had been shared with community leaders and other law enforcement authorities. Some parents were critical of the delay in making the threat public, but others said it really didn't matter. "I wasn't particularly impacted by that statement from the sniper through the police chief," said the father of an 8-year-old Montgomery County student who identified himself only as Bruce. "I think it's pretty obvious what his intentions are and what he's capable of doing." Since October 2, the sniper has shot 13 people, killing 10. Police reported Wednesday that a ballistics test revealed the bullet used to kill a bus driver on Tuesday morning was fired from the same gun as the previous 12 sniper shootings. School districts contacted by CNN said they were in close touch with law enforcement officials about their plans and decided the schools would be safe. Bruce said he thinks his son "is safe in school."
"I think a little more police presence at the schools would make me feel a little bit better," he said, "but I don't have any fears about sending my child to school today." But Dewitt Wood, the father of a student in Montgomery County, had a different view. He took his son home early Tuesday following the fatal shooting and said he is considering keeping his son at home until the sniper is caught. "If I had known earlier," Wood said after Tuesday's shooting, "I probably wouldn't have let him come to school at all." School officials in Montgomery County said they were open Wednesday under continued Code Blue security restrictions. That means recess and physical education will be held inside, and open lunch for high school seniors and field trips will not be held at all. "School system staff, students, parents, and the community are asked to continue to be patient and flexible in order to allow the school system the maximum ability to respond correctly to changing circumstances," according to a statement from the Montgomery County Public Schools. The one change D.C. schools made Wednesday was a decision to suspend public school bus service, said Superintendent Paul Vance. "Obviously we take the threats very seriously," said Elena Temple, a spokeswoman for the District of Columbia Board of Education. "We do feel as if the children are safe in school." American Association of School Administrators President Paul Houston said the decision to close or not to close, to keep children home or to take them to school, was a hard one. "There is no right or wrong answer on this," he said. "Or perhaps every answer is wrong, to put it more accurately." "No one is safe, and certainly not children. And that's a chilling situation," he added. "On the other hand, do you close the schools and have children out on the street or unsupervised? Or do you bring them into school in a more supervised environment, but take the chance of getting them in and out of the building safely? " In neighboring Prince George's County, which also abuts the District of Columbia, schools were also observing a Code Blue Wednesday, said Athena Ware, spokeswoman for the county's public schools. A heightened police presence will also be in place around the schools, she said. The sniper has already struck at a school in Bowie, Maryland, where a 13-year-old boy was hit in the abdomen. He was one of two other confirmed sniper victims to survive the shooting. The shooting in Ashland, about 80 miles south of the nation's capital, led authorities there to close 10 Richmond-area school districts Monday and Tuesday. But all of those districts reopened Wednesday, said Laura Neff-Henderson, a representative of the Petersburg Public Schools who spoke on behalf of the region.
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Do you close the schools and have children out on the street or unsupervised? Or do you bring them into school in a more supervised environment? 
