GREENSBORO, N.C. — Students across the state say they’re struggling with online courses. 

One Guilford County student started a petition to change an updated schedule the county released on January 15, which extends the amount of online instruction time.

Sheldon Ulmer is a sophomore at Northwest Guilford High Achool, and he’s been doing online classes since March. He says the new instruction schedule extends the amount of instruction from three hours and 10 minutes to four hours and 30 minutes, as well as an immeasurable amount of homework required to complete after classes are done. According to him, this an unbearable amount of time to sit in front of a computer, and it's affecting his health and well-being.

“A lot of my friends have been talking about how they haven’t been feeling as fit, and they’re out of shape and not conditioned, and their mental health is also struggling too. They’ve been talking to me about how sitting in front of a computer for so long, they’re just sad, and they don’t feel like anything is ever going to happen. Personally for me, I’m a pretty outgoing and fun guy but over these past few months I’ve dealt with depression as well," Ulmer says.

In just a few days after starting the petition, Ulmer was able to get almost 4,000 signatures from parents, staff, and students agreeing with his petition to change the new mandatory schedule.

Spectrum News 1 reached out to Guilford County Schools and Chief Academic Officer Whitney Oakley, who stated “students learn best when attending class every day. For our older students they will be in class virtually, but we hope to have them back in person in the near future."

If you're interested in signing the petition, you can click here.