Uvalde Children Going Back to School After Shooting Tragedy, But Robb Elementary Won't Re-Open

After the Uvalde school shooting that claimed the lives of 21 people, Uvalde students are set to return to school on Tuesday with some expressing skepticism and worries.

Among those was Zayon Martinez, who spent his final hour of second grade hiding under a desk as bullets flew through the elementary school, according to a CNN News report.

Zayon's father, Adam Martinez, said that he talked to his son and assured him that there would be more police officers and higher fencing. However, the incoming third-grade student was not assured. Zayon told his father that it does not matter and "they're not gonna protect us."

Martinez, who is a father of two, said that his children chose remote learning. In his daughter's junior high, there was no fencing installed and he said that he will not convince her to go there when there is no fencing.

Brett Cross, the uncle of a child that was killed in the Texas shooting, said that the incident was something that "terrorizes you daily and nightly." Cross was raising Uziyah Garcia as his own son. He is struggling to send his four other children back to school.

Uvalde School Shooting Aftermath

NBC News reported that Robb Elementary has not reopened since the Texas shooting, with its surviving students having been enrolled across different schools in the area.

The school district has also offered a virtual option this year for parents who did not feel comfortable sending their children back to school. Some local schools have installed taller fences, increased security and cameras, with additional law enforcement presence, more counselors, and emotional support dogs.

Hal Harrel, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent, said in June that they will not be back to the school where the shooting happened. Incoming second-grade students will start their school year at Dalton Elementary instead, while second and third graders will go to the new Uvalde Elementary.

Thirty students from Robb Elementary have received scholarships to enroll at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Uvalde.

Meanwhile, the Texas Department of Public Safety has adopted a new approach when it comes to responding to school shootings. The New York Times obtained an email in July referring to active shooting response guidelines.

State police director Steven McCraw noted in the email that the new policy would be that if a subject fires a weapon at a school, he would be treated as an active shooter until he is neutralized and not as a "barricaded subject."

Uvalde, Texas Shooting

Two weeks before the start of a new school year, the Uvalde school district fired Pete Arredondo, who is the police chief at the time of the shooting.

Associated Press News noted that the decision was made amid the growing pressure from grieving families to punish officers involved in the shooting response at the school.

The Texas school shooting has killed 19 children and two teachers.

Arredondo is the first police officer to lose his job after the school shooting, which was considered one of the deadliest in U.S. history.

Officers have waited more than 70 minutes to confront the 18-year-old gunman in the Robb Elementary School classroom.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Students in Uvalde return to school for 1st day of class l ABCNL - from ABC News