Parents and teachers across the country are hosting car parades to reconnect during the coronavirus lockdown, but police are starting to shut down the caravans amid a flood of complaints.

Teachers at Julia P. Bryant Elementary School and William James Middle School organized a teachers drive through students’ neighborhoods on Thursday to wave and offer encouragement from their vehicles after weeks apart, the Statesboro Herald reports.

Bulloch County teachers and students left schools for a temporary shutdown on March 13 that has since extended through the rest of the school year. Bulloch County Schools spokeswoman Hayley Greene told the news site teachers warned parents to maintain social distancing and emergency rules prohibiting groups of more than 10, and the car parade was escorted by a Bulloch County Sheriff’s deputy, but complaints to law enforcement forced officials to shut it down early.

“Unfortunately, even though … administrators had cleared this activity with law enforcement and even had (Bulloch County Sheriff’s Deputy Bubba Revell) en route with them,” the complaints poured in, Greene said.

Deputies called an end to the parade halfway through, she said, because parents weren’t following the rules.

Teachers “had communicated with families prior to the activity and encouraged everyone to be sure to be safe and maintain social distancing, (but) some did not heed these cautions, so for safety the Sheriff’s Department asked the schools to end the joint drive by faculty parade early,” Greene said.

School officials are now encouraging students and families to share pictures on school Facebook pages.

“We encourage everyone to be safe and be well,” Greene said. “Teachers throughout the district are also contacting their students by phone or email at least twice each week to check on how they are doing academically, socially, and emotionally.”

The teacher parade in Bulloch County wasn’t the only one canceled on Thursday.

“A parade by Greenwich(, New York) school teachers and staff that was scheduled for Thursday morning was canceled,” The Post-Star reports.

“A teacher involved in the planning of the parade said in an email late Wednesday that the parade would not happen due to the state’s stay-at-home recommendations,” according to the news site. “Greenwich Central School staff had planned to hold an hourlong parade, led by a school bus, starting at 11 a.m. to let K-12 students and their families at home know that school personnel are thinking of them during the pandemic.”

It was the same deal at Benicia, California’s Mary Farmar Elementary School.

“One of the best parts of being a teacher is seeing your students’ sweet faces each day,” kindergarten teacher Kellie Barragan told the Benicia Herald. “It has been heartbreaking not to see them. There’s something so simple yet powerful about an in person smile. We wanted to organize this parade so we can share those in person smiles as well as the feelings of joy, love, and community that are such an integral part of the Mary Farmar value system.”

The teacher organized “Positivity Parade” was set to loop around downtown neighborhoods at 3 p.m. today, with families advised not to leave their driveways or to remain in their vehicles. On Wednesday, local law enforcement intervened.

“The police department felt it was not a safe choice at the moment,” the Herald reports. “Teachers are sorry if this causes any inconvenience.”

This piece originally appeared in TheAmericanMirror.com and is used by permission.

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