CONYERS, Ga. (AP) -- With hugs and words of support, students returned to classes today at Heritage High School, including four of the six who were wounded in a shooting last week. Dozens of deputies and state troopers guarded the school and helped direct traffic as the students arrived in buses and cars under a bright morning sun. But Principal Lowell Biddy said there was no extra security inside, except for a few parents who had volunteered to be in the hallways. Biddy said 90 percent of Heritage students showed up for classes today, although some left early. Among those showing up were Jason Cheek, 17; Ryan Rosa, 18; Drake Hoy, 17; and Brian Barnhardt, 16, who were wounded Thursday. Several students hugged in the parking lot before they went inside. ``A few students were apprehensive about coming into the building, but once they got support from their fellow students, they were OK,'' Biddy said. The students were given extra time in home room to receive and sign their yearbooks, which they would have done last week but for the shootings. Final exams, scheduled for this week, are now optional for Heritage students. ``It's really freaky and really weird with cops at every door, but I can't blame them for being here,'' said senior Matt Powell. ``This is definitely not the way to go out. Everybody was excited to go to school Thursday, and then this happened.'' Thursday was to have been the seniors' last day of school. He said he walked into the commons area today, and ``all I could do was picture it happening. I could not get it out of my mind.'' The gunman, ``T.J.'' Solomon, 15, remained in a youth detention center. Authorities are expected to decide this week whether to try him as an adult for Thursday's shootings. Fellow students said Solomon was despondent over a recent breakup with his girlfriend. He had been taking Ritalin, a drug commonly prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The boy's mother, Mae Dean Daniele, apologized to the community in an interview shown today on CNN. ``We thank God that all the children are alive,'' she said. ``We grieve for each one of you and we pray for a full recovery from all the suffering of this tragedy.'' Ed Garland, the boy's lawyer, told CNN the defense would center on his mental condition, since the defense does not contest that Solomon was the shooter. On Sunday, churches in the area were filled with prayers for healing -- and for Solomon. Worshippers said they saw the gunman not as a fiend, but as a troubled youth badly needing God's peace. At St. Simon's Episcopal, where several Heritage students worship, Solomon was listed in the bulletin's prayers of the week as one to remember. ``We pray for T.J., the young man who did this,'' said the Rev. Leon Watts Jr. ``We pray that this would never happen again.'' Only one of the six victims remained hospitalized today. Stephanie Laster, 15, still has a bullet lodged in her abdomen but was in good condition at Hughes Spalding Children's Hospital in Atlanta. Biddy said he had a brief conversation with Solomon just after an assistant principal disarmed him Thursday. ``He was quite hysterical,'' he said. ``I was asking him if he was OK. And then I asked the big questions. I asked if those are blanks, and he said no. Then I asked if he had acted alone, and he said yes. And then he started sobbing, and he said, `Mr. Biddy, I don't know why I did this. I just don't know why I did this.''' Members of Solomon's congregation, St. Pius X Catholic, erected three large sheets of blank paper at the back of the sanctuary for members' messages for Heritage students. ``There will be a tomorrow and God will be there for you,'' was one of the hundreds of notes. ``God loves you,'' a child scrawled. -=-=- 