COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Parents nervously took their children by
the hand and walked them to school. Teachers were given maps to
help them get to work without using the highway nearby. Outdoor
recess was canceled for the rest of the week.

A deadly series of 12 shootings around here since May -
including one in which a bullet broke a window at Hamilton Central
Elementary School last month in the middle of the night - have
unnerved parents, motorists and others.

The shootings - which investigators believe are connected - have
taken place around a five-mile stretch of Interstate 270. One woman
in a car was killed last week.

"Until they catch him, there's no way they're getting on the
bus," said Michelle Maupin, who changed her routine to drop her
7-year-old daughter off at school.

Yesterday, police used dogs to search woods for a weapon after
residents reported a gunshot near the sites of the shootings.
Columbus police spokeswoman Sherry Mercurio said officers were
talking to a man, and later led a handcuffed man away from the
direction of the woods. But authorities say the case is probably
not related to the shootings.

At Hamilton Central Elementary, police officers and sheriff's
deputies watched over students arriving and leaving the brick
school, which has 468 students in kindergarten through third grade.
Three boys waved cheerily at an officer stationed at the door.

Some parents said they were not comfortable with their children
being at class. Seventy students were absent yesterday, according
to the school system, almost double the usual number.

"We told them if anybody comes into the school, to get under the
desk and hide," Maupin said.

Hamilton Central, about two miles from I-270, sits along a rural
road, with a high school on one side and a school administration
building on the other.

Colleen McGowan normally walks with her daughter along a gravel
path to the edge of school property. But yesterday, she walked the
second-grader into the school building. "I told her I'd be picking
her up and taking her every day," McGowan said.

McGowan, 30, said she thought it was important for her
seven-year-old daughter, Savannah, to be in school despite the
danger. "You can't keep them home and keep them from their
education," she said.

"I ain't a bit scared. If you're going to get killed, you're
going to get it," said J.J. Stamper, 76, as he drank coffee at a
McDonald's nearby.

But Yvonne Marcello, 47, said she is almost paralyzed with fear
when she thinks about the shootings and crime in general in her
neighborhood.

"I don't go out very often. I shouldn't feel so scared, but I
do," said Marcello, who does not have a car and has to walk
everywhere.

Yesterday, only about half of the tables were occupied at China
City restaurant less than a mile from I-270.

"We were busier before the shootings," said manager Jeffrey Zhu.
"I asked a lot of customers. They usually drive this way, but not
anymore."

As he left the slower-than-usual Los Camperos Mexican restaurant
next door, Bob LaGore, 45, said he, too, is worried about driving
on I-270.

"I drive slouched down in the seat," he said.