CLEVELAND, Ohio — Parents and students in several Northeast Ohio schools are pushing back against their districts’ decisions to suspend in-class instruction and extracurricular activities this fall, as recommended by the Cuyahoga County Board of Health due to COVID-19.

North Royalton parents held a rally Monday morning, and more are being planned in Bay Village and Brecksville-Broadview Heights.

Melanie Kirin, who has two children in the Brecksville-Broadview Heights school district, helped organize the “Local Schools, Local Families Rally” Monday at the Brecksville-Broadview Heights board of education office.

The rally will take place outside a school board meeting where final decisions about the fall session are expected to be voted on, said Kirin, 43, of Brecksville. The meeting is closed, and rally participants will remain outside of the board of education building.

Kirin said the rally is to represent what the parents want. and for parents to be unified in wanting schools to be open. “We know that our schools are safe and we know our local school can provide a safe environment.” She said that 70% of respondents to a district survey said they would send their children to in-school instruction.

Health officials on Thursday recommended remote learning for the fall semester, and that schools discontinue sports and other extracurriculars during that time. Multiple reports of clusters of COVID-19 cases have been investigated in sports and other activities, health officials said.

The health board has received several emails and phone calls both supporting and criticizing its recommendation, a spokesman said. The board did not track whether most of the comments were for or against the recommendation, he said.

Bay Village students are planning a rally for 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Early Monday morning, North Royalton district parents supporting in-school instruction gathered at the Memorial Park, according to a Facebook post. North Royalton students protested their school district’s decision to suspend sports for the fall season last Friday, according to Channel 8.

Rocky River parents started a petition Monday evening.

“We, the undersigned parents of Rocky River public schoolchildren, urge you to reject the Cuyahoga County Board of Health’s recommendation that our classrooms remain physically closed at the beginning of the fall semester,” the petition says. “That recommendation ignores the overwhelming, scientific evidence that reopening schools does not increase the spread of the novel coronavirus among children or adults. The recommendation also disregards the overwhelming evidence that children learn less when schools are physically closed, while being at greater risk of abuse, depression, and suicide. Finally, the recommendation ignores the particular circumstances of Rocky River, irrationally lumping together all Cuyahoga County communities and school districts.”

On Friday, the Ohio High School Athletic Association reaffirmed its earlier decision to go forward with the fall sports season. Parents at some Cuyahoga high schools are petitioning for their districts to overturn decisions last week to comply with board of health recommendations.

So far, Mayfield made the decision to change course and hold football practice.