CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — About two dozen cars showed up along Shoreline Saturday morning ready to ride through downtown Corpus Christi, in honor of teacher and student safety.
"We want the community to know that they need to start respecting teachers," said teacher and advocate, Norma Guerra. "And the community needs to know that, we need to be safe in our classrooms and we want the children safe."
Guerra and Monica Jimenez are both teachers who feel it is not safe enough to have children back in schools.
Both Guerra and Jimenez kept their own kids home for extended virtual learning until they feel it is deemed safe enough.
"I did not send my son back to school," Jiminez said. "He's learning from home ... he's the only one there. I'm working, but it’s safer for him to be there," said Jimenez.
Corpus Christi's American Federation of Teachers president Nancy Vera said schools need more funding to keep up with the CDC precautions.
"We’re in danger because our classrooms are not ready to receive students in the capacity that the governor and the commissioner of education expect," Vera said.
Among specific areas of her concern, Vera believes many schools do not have enough janitors to sanitize effectively. She also said many teachers are having to use older laptops for students to use, and because of the constant changes, teachers are becoming more and more stressed out.
"We need more funding," Vera said. "We need fair funding, we need some rules relaxed. We cannot deal with consistent changes and rules from the Texas Education Agency."
Vera said the caravan was just the beginning to letting their voices be heard.
On Monday, she intends to chain herself to a school, and she does believe she will get arrested.
This act, she hopes, will grab the attention of Gov. Greg Abbott.
