TULSA -- A group of Tulsa teachers headed to the Capitol Friday morning.
About ten teachers made the trip the day after Oklahoma Education Association President Alicia Priest announced the walkout was over.
"I was sad," Bonny Reibert, a teacher at McClure Elementary, said about the end of the walkout. "I was disappointed. It was hard to accept that something we had done for nine days was changing directions."
The group was not expecting near the turnout of people Friday they have seen in the last two weeks.
"It’s going to be a lot of determined teachers still wanting to do more for our kids even though schools are starting to go back," Mackenzie Mabon, a teacher at Skelly Primary, said.
Since the walkout ended, the teachers are focusing on the upcoming elections.
More than 300 candidates registered to run for House and Senate seats.
"I am going back to support the candidates who have filed for office to oppose those who let the teachers and let the students down," Reibert said.
They hope the candidates throwing their hat in the upcoming elections are encouraged that teachers are backing them.
"Our kids deserve better and they need the Representatives and the Senators who are still there today need to know that this fight is not over," Mabon said. "Just because the walkout is over doesn’t mean we are going to stop fighting for our kids and what they deserve."
They want to stay involved in the fight for education, whether that is writing to their local legislators or continuing to go to the Capitol.
"I think it’s going to be at first about getting the kids back into their normal routine," Mabon said continuing to go to the Capitol. "It all just depends on what the people above me have to say about that."
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