Uvalde students return to classes after the massacre of 21 people. But some refuse to return to the classroom

(CNN) --

Zayon Martinez spent his last hour of second grade hiding under a desk as bullets flew through Robb Elementary School.

By the end of the carnage, 19 of his schoolmates and two teachers had been killed.

Now Zayon, who is supposed to start third grade on Tuesday, doesn't want to set foot in another classroom, his father said.

• Why was Pete Arredondo, the police chief of the Uvalde school district, fired?

"I went and talked to my son and said, 'They're going to have more police. They're going to have higher fences. And he wasn't having it,'" Zayon's father, Adam Martinez, said.

"He said, 'It doesn't matter. They're not going to protect us.'"

Zayon Martinez, 8, hid from the gunfire at Robb Elementary School.

He is now too traumatized to go back into a classroom.

Zayon's fear is not unfounded.

Since the tragic end of last school year, the pain engulfing Uvalde, Texas has been compounded by outrage.

Families learned that law enforcement officers waited more than 70 minutes before entering the two classrooms where 19 students and two teachers lay mortally wounded.

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And authorities repeatedly changed their stories about what happened as new damning evidence emerged.

Now, families who have already lost a child in the massacre are worrying about sending another child to school.

And months of preparation by parents and school administrators will be put to the test.

Robb Elementary School will not reopen

No students or staff will return to the site of the deadliest school massacre in nearly a decade.

• CNN Exclusive: Principal of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde defends actions on the day of the shooting

"We're not going back to that campus," Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Hal Harrell said in June.

Instead, children who were in first grade at Robb Elementary School last year will start second grade at Dalton Elementary School.

Robb's second and third graders from last year will go to the new Uvalde Elementary School, located in an existing educational complex in the city.

Many teachers from Robb Elementary School have moved to Uvalde Elementary School.

And some students have left the school district altogether.

Enrollment at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Uvalde began its new school year with double the number of elementary-age students compared to last fall, its principal said.

The new students include 30 from Robb Elementary who received scholarships to go to private school.

All students remaining in the Uvalde Public School District would be able to sign up for remote learning and use tablets provided by the school district.

Martinez said both of her children have opted for remote learning.

“I talked to my son and daughter, and they said they were afraid that if it happened again, they weren't going to protect them,” she said.

"There's no fencing at the high school my daughter would go to. There's no way I'm going to convince her to go when there's no fencing."

But remote learning isn't possible for some families where both parents work outside the home.

And changing the scenario will not erase the horror that haunts the families of the victims, especially those who are debating whether to send their other children back to school.

'I don't feel my children are safe'

Uziyah Garcia was on the honor roll at her school and loved anything with wheels.

She killed him before she could take the first driving lesson from her.

Uziyah Garcia should start fifth grade today.

But he was shot to death in his classroom at age 10, leaving his family paralyzed with grief.

"This is something that terrifies you day and night," said Uziyah's uncle, Brett Cross, who was raising Uziyah as his own son.

"I close my eyes. All I see is my son. I hear the gunshots. It's something that never goes away."

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But Cross has four other children in the school district.

She has had a hard time deciding whether to send them back to school in person.

"You want your kids to be able to go and have that education and everything, but at the same time you're afraid they won't make it to the end of the day," she said.

Cross spent much of this summer demanding accountability from the school district and criticizing the law enforcement response.

"We've already seen that they didn't do their job. So how are we supposed to trust that?" he said last week.

"I don't feel like my kids are safe."

Brett Cross shows off his tattoo in honor of his murdered nephew Uziyah Garcia, whom he was raising as his own son.

Cross has two 15-year-old daughters who have decided to go back to school in person.

She said they are old enough to make their own decisions, with the guidance of her parents.

"But my little ones (ages 7 and 10) ... we're still not sure," he said.

"I don't feel like everything has been done to protect our children."

Cross said he appreciated some of the changes made by the school district.

After the district announced that 33 Texas Department of Public Safety officers would work in Uvalde schools this year, Cross said he was assured those officers would not be among the dozens who responded on the day of the massacre.

But he wants to see more active monitoring of schools.

"We've had several requests about someone ... monitoring surveillance and all that, a dedicated person," he said.

"That would make me feel much safer."

What the school district is doing

After months of public outrage, the Uvalde School District fired its police chief, Pedro "Pete" Arredondo.

State investigators and law enforcement analysts say Arredondo was the de facto incident commander on the day of the massacre.

• Video of the shooting in Uvalde shows children struggling to escape and police entangled with a bunch of keys

The Uvalde School District also announced new safety measures planned for this school year.

They include hiring 10 more school police officers, installing 500 new security cameras, assigning 33 Texas Department of Public Safety officers to the Uvalde school district, and finding a new interim police chief.

A memorial outside Robb Elementary School in June honoring the 19 children and two teachers shot dead on May 24.

The school district said it also increased emotional support for students, including comfort dogs at each campus during the first weeks of school, additional school counselors and trauma-informed care training for all staff members.

But Cross said he is not done demanding more safety measures, not just for his surviving children, but for all children in the hope that no other family will have to endure the agony he is enduring.

"I'm fighting the system that let him (Uziyah) down. I'm at every city council meeting. I'm at every school board meeting," he said.

Cross has also questioned why 18-year-olds in Texas can buy assault rifles like the one used to kill Uziyah.

"You have to be 21 to buy cigarettes and alcohol, things that can kill you. But you only have to be 18 to buy something that can kill multiple people," he said.

"I'm channeling my pain into the fight right now because this fight is a fight that everyone should be a part of, but no one is until they are. And it's much harder on this side, with this hole in your heart, take on this fight."