About 7,000 schools collapsed in the May 12 quake, often as nearby buildings stood firm, and relatives of the dead children initially spoke out loudly against the graft they believed led to the shoddy construction of the schools.
However a police crackdown in the months following the earthquake and the handing over of wads of cash to grieving relatives have apparently helped quash what was a rare moment of freedom of expression in communist-ruled China.
"The families have accepted compensation payments -- they have to accept the money because the police can be very terrifying," said a shop-owner surnamed Cheng near the Juyuan Middle School where at least 200 teachers and children died and protests were amongst the angriest.
"When they accept the money they are told to keep quiet, we have all been told not to accept interviews (with the media)."
According to Chinese press reports, compensation payments for each child lost were at least 32,000 yuan (4,500 dollars) throughout the quake zone.
But Cheng said the parents of each dead child at the Juyuan school received up to 170,000 yuan -- more than five times as much.
Parents who spoke to AFP in June during the protests -- some of which were forcibly quelled by police -- refused to talk to journalists this week.
"It is not convenient for me to speak to you now, please don't call," said You Zhenghua, who had dug her 14-year-old daughter out of the Juyuan debris with her bare hands.
One father whose daughter survived the Juyuan collapse said relatives were still angry over why the building caved in.
"It is clear that poor construction was a problem -- why didn't other buildings here collapse?" he said, while asking his name not be used for fear of repercussions from authorities.
The earthquake left nearly 88,000 people dead or missing in southwest China's Sichuan province and surrounding areas.
According to official estimates, up to 9,000 teachers and students were killed in the collapses of the school, but locals believe such estimates are far below the real numbers.
While doling out compensation and pressuring the parents to keep quiet, the government has also rounded up activists seeking to help the families.
Veteran rights campaigner Huang Qi, 44, was in July charged with "illegal possession of state secrets" after he collected data on collapsed schools, according to his wife. Authorities have not commented on his case.
Liu Shaokun, a Sichuan school teacher, was also reportedly sent to a labour camp late last month after he posted photos of collapsed school buildings on the Internet.
Liu was arrested on June 25 and sentenced to one year of "re-education through labour" for "disturbing public order," the New York-based Human Rights in China said. Police have refused to comment on Liu's case.
Immediately following the quake, China's state-controlled press was allowed to report freely on the anger of the parents over the collapsed schools, but such freedoms were curbed three weeks later.
As part of the crackdown, two AFP staff members were among at least six foreign media representatives held by police for a short time and then ordered out of town after they tried to report at Juyuan and other schools in June.
"We have to be thankful to the media for their concern," said Zao Sufang, 80, whose home near the front gate of the Juyuan school partially collapsed.
"Because of the reports, the situation here has ended much better than it would have otherwise," she added.
In response to the parents' initial complaints, the government vowed to "thoroughly investigate" each school collapse and hold any official responsible.
It has also insisted that it has had an "open attitude" to foreign press reporting in the quake zone.