BRIGHTON, N.Y. — Open Schools Monroe County held a protest outside of the Monroe County Health Department Saturday afternoon calling for local schools to reopen five days a week.

Nicole Sidhu, a mother of two who organized the protest, believes local parents should be able to make a choice on whether their child can go back to school five days a week.

"Vaccines are now being distributed,” Sidhu said. “Hospitalization rates are falling. Death rates from COVID are falling. We need to put our kids back in school. We need to prioritize our kids."

It wasn't only parents calling for the change.

James Christensen is a ninth grader at Minerva DeLand School in Fairport who would also like that option.

"I'm here because I care about my education,” James said. “I care about learning and for setting myself up to have a good career and this just isn't doing that. It's not giving me the education that I need for my classes."

James says the hybrid model doesn't provide enough hands on experience because they are stuck mostly learning through a computer screen. 

He also feels the state is more focused on sports.

"I feel like wrestling, they don't have their mask on and they are violating every social distancing guideline, James said. “Meanwhile they are strict and intent, having classrooms be six feet distant with masks when wrestling is so much more than a spread. And they are just allowing it to happen and giving priority to those high risk activities."

Sidhu also added that schools should continue to follow COVID guidelines to control the spread of the virus.

"The state needs to drop the mandatory distancing from six to three feet,” Sidhu said. “Three feet is approved by world health organization and many other experts. There is no reason to lock kids out of school on this unscientific and unapproved distance."

For Ruth Christensen, a seven grader at Martha Brown in Fairport, she said a return to full in person learning would still be worth it this late into the year.

"I can't make up the time that I've lost,” Ruth said. “I can't go back and do this but we can start making it up right now by going back five days."

Spectrum News reached out to the Monroe County Department of Public Health for comment but has yet to receive a response.