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Galveston Beach in 2019.
While many universities across the country—Yale University, Georgia Institute of Technology and Rice University to name a few—have canceled or shortened spring break to mitigate the threat of COVID-19, most Texas universities are carrying on as planned.
Since Gov. Greg Abbott did away with statewide COVID-19 restrictions, just days before spring break week, Galveston officials said they saw a massive crowd kicking off spring break weekend on Saturday. A pandemic taboo, tens of thousands flocked to the famous spring break destination, Galveston Beach, to relax.
It wouldn't be the first time, spring breakers have gathered despite a pandemic. Last year actually brought the most people to the Galveston Beach than some past years, says Chief Peter Davis of Galveston Island Beach Patrol.
Davis said he is expecting large crowds, though it is still too early to tell how many beachgoers are expected on the island.
"We were packed Saturday—I mean, the island was completely full," Davis told Austonia on Monday. "I think we had bumper-to-bumper traffic for probably five or six hours in the afternoon."
Davis said for the past two years, Galveston has had 7.2 million visitors, so the conversation of keeping people safe has been ongoing since before the pandemic even began.
Beaches have always been a popular spring break destination for college students. And for local university students, the drive up to Galveston is just over three hours long.
The University of Texas at Austin did not change the spring break schedule, though they recommended students get tested one to three days before traveling and after, quarantining for ten days if not. But the university, ultimately cannot control what students do during their break.
Although weekend crowds draw in anywhere from 250,000 to 500,000 people, Davis said the beach is actually probably one of the safest places for people to go.
"I think the beaches are back into popularity again. It kind of waxes and wanes but I think we're seeing a surge of interest in going to the beach (with COVID putting) limitation on other types of recreation," Davis said. "They all come basically down the same highway, go to the same gas stations and restaurants and they all funnel through, so the beach itself might be fairly easy to stay distant and to kind of maintain those precautions."
There are still a few weeks in the spring break season, Davis said, and with a lot of vacation areas, they can't regulate as easily, like Airbnb rentals and less populous beaches, keeping people safe is difficult. Davis said he expects the crowds to get rowdy, but he is glad that they have been safe so far.
(Galveston Beach Patrol/Instagram)
Beachfront Business General Manager Charlie Rightly said being on the beach, business has been pretty steady for him. Since the restaurant is an open-air patio, they let customers decide whether or not they want to mask.
"Everybody's pretty spaced out and everything (on the beach)," Rightly said. "The city's doing a lot of that by just implementing where they put out the umbrellas."
And aside from taking COVID precautions, Davis mentioned not to swim alone and be careful of rip currents as you swim—believe it or not, there is more danger at the beach than just catching a deadly virus.
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Two former Apple employees, one who worked at the West Parmer Lane campus, speak out about their experience working at the tech giant. (Andrea Guzmán/Austonia)
Parrish, who lives in Round Rock and worked at Apple’s Austin campus as an Apple Maps program manager for about five years, is a leader of an internal movement at the tech giant. It comes at a time when the company is expanding its local presence with a new $1 billion Northwest campus with space for 5,000 employees.
Parrish worked at this Apple campus on West Parmer Lane. (Steven Joyner)
In August, the movement known as #AppleToo launched a website with the goal of organizing employees and sharing stories about alleged workplace harassment and discrimination. Austonia talked to Parrish and another former Apple employee who are part of the movement about their claims in what they observed while working for Apple.
“I’ve been advocating for members of my immediate team within Apple for several years,” Parrish said. “And when I realized that the issues that I was seeing with my own team were true throughout Apple, there was a natural transition toward, ok let’s expand this advocacy and instead be more of an advocate for everybody at Apple to ensure that we the workers at Apple are treated fairly and equitably and get treated as human beings.”
In the lead-up to her firing, Parrish faced an allegation that she had leaked details from a recent all-hands meeting to the Verge. She says she suspects it’s this, along with her advocacy, that influenced Apple’s decision to fire her.
“I didn’t do (the leak). And I know that Apple knows I didn’t do this,” Parrish said since a few employees including herself didn’t have access to that meeting due to a system crash that day. “I was still placed under investigation.”
As a requirement of the investigation, Parrish turned in her work devices. Before doing so, she wiped the files from her computer, saying she didn’t want her personal files on Apple servers. After a few days on paid suspension, she says human resources called and told her she’d been terminated with the reason being that she’d deleted those files.
Parrish is one of the leaders of the AppleToo movement. (Janneke Parrish)
Before Parrish’s firing, Apple was taking action on leaks and workplace organizing. An internal memo from 2018 noted a number of leakers they had caught were arrested. About a month before Parrish was fired, the tech giant had fired a senior engineering program manager for allegedly leaking confidential information. And in a September note, CEO Tim Cook sent a note to all Apple employees saying “people who leak confidential information do not belong” at Apple.
Austonia asked Apple about Parrish’s case and other matters at the company. In an email reply, the company said:
“We are and have always been deeply committed to creating and maintaining a positive and inclusive workplace. We take all concerns seriously and we thoroughly investigate whenever a concern is raised and, out of respect for the privacy of any individuals involved, we do not discuss specific employee matters.”
Another piece of Parrish’s advocacy involved career opportunities for workers, particularly those based in Austin.
Even though Apple upped their presence in Austin in recent years, Parrish said Austin-area employees couldn’t enjoy networking opportunities like California workers did as Apple events were held on the West Coast. Texan Apple workers shouldn’t have to relocate to move up, she said.
“For those of us in Austin, I noticed, especially for my department, my career options were extremely limited,” Parrish said. “I was told by a manager that if I really wanted to advance in my career, I would have to move out to California.”
Parrish said Apple employees in Austin do not have the same career opportunities as those in California. (Shutterstock)
Austonia spoke to another member of the organizing group AppleToo. She requested anonymity to not hinder future job prospects in the tech industry. She’ll be identified with the pseudonym Mary.
Mary said she’s worked at Apple since 2008 in Austin, starting off as a contractor in customer support at iTunes and moving around over the years, leaving the tech giant earlier this month.
“It’s too hard to advance and there are no opportunities for development so (I was) just kind of stuck in a dead-end job,” Mary said.
Mary felt that another challenge was being a woman at a tech company. Starting out, she says she was the lowest paid in a training class of mostly men with pay of around $30,000, which rose to about $55,000 by the time she left.
But aside from pay, communication also proved to be a hurdle. To make her persona appear gender-neutral, she changed how her name was displayed on Slack, the interoffice directory and over email to just her first initial.
“The hard part was when I would have to get into a meeting with people then I felt like my voice is giving me away now,” Mary said. “But when I could avoid having meetings, I felt like it did make a difference.”
Mary says there’s been some movement in the right direction. An internal memo in November affirmed employees’ right to discuss pay after it had shut down employee-run pay equity surveys and an employee-run Slack channel. Earlier this month, it announced new efforts in a racial equity and justice initiative.
“We all want to see positive changes from Apple,” Mary said. “We all want them to look at wage disparities. We’d like to see more diversity—more minorities in leadership positions, more females in leadership positions.”
Still, Mary feels there’s more to be done. “I wish Apple was more responsive at making bigger changes,” she said.
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