GRANITE CITY, Ill. — Not many kids can say they've missed school for record-breaking flooding and a global pandemic in the same year, but students in Granite City have persevered through it all.
Frohardt Elementary is closed through April 7, possibly longer. Jamie Mihu teaches special education there and said her kids have had a bumpy year.
"Granite City has taken a hit this year with catastrophes," she said.
Mihu said elementary school was delayed two weeks due to flooding, and the high school was delayed four or five weeks.
Now, with coronavirus concerns, students are out of even more class time. In a show of support Thursday morning, their teachers organized a citywide bus route parade.
"We want them to see that we are OK," Mihu told 5 On Your Side. "We will get back and everything will be good as gold."
Granite City teachers are worried about their students, and they also just plain miss them.
Multiple cars in Thursday morning's parade had "We miss you" or "We love you" written across them in window paint.
Seven-year-old Tanner Dickerson misses his teacher, too.
"I miss her teaching us math," Tanner said.
He was one of many kids who waited patiently out in front of his house for the teacher parade to come through.
The smiles of the kids seeing the parade passed by was only surpassed by the smiles on their teachers' faces looking back at them.
"They bring joy to our life everyday," Mihu said. "It's been a very hard thing for us teachers as well. This is the first positive thing to come out of all of this for us."
The parade initially started as just three teachers, but word spread through social media and 80 teachers ultimately paraded through two different routes covering all of Granite City.
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