Parents and students in California’s Vista Unified School District are protesting a new credit/no credit grading system they believe robs students of the hard work they put in over the last semester.

“Protect everyone,” parent Kimberly Campbell told NBC 7. “If you need credit/no credit, ok. But if you worked your butt off these 12 weeks of the semester, should they erase those grades?”

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More than four dozen carloads of families plastered signs like “VUSD hear us,” “We want choice” and “Save our grades” on vehicles to parade in front of the district’s headquarters last week, when they honked horns and spoke with reporters about the grading plan.

School officials opted to issue credit/no credit marks amid the coronavirus in a bid to protect students who fell behind during the pandemic, but parents on patrol Tuesday argue the move punishes students who did not.

Parents and students are demanding the option to accept credit/no credit, or to receive the letter grades students held when schools closed in March, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Protestors told the news site they’re concerned about how the credit/no credit system will impact opportunities for college, because many schools prefer complete transcripts.

“Every single college we talked to said we prefer data to no data,” Seema Burke, mother of a Vista High School junior who organized the protest, told the Union-Tribune.

Campbell told NBC 7 “parents and students need to pick what’s best for them, and options need to be there.”

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“It’s not one or the other,” Burke said, “it’s an option.”

Similar protests are underway in the San Dieguito Union School District, NBC 7 reports.

Vista Unified Superintendent Matt Doyle said district officials opted for credit/no credit marks because some students are stressed out during the pandemic, and they may need to bring up their grades before college. He cited families with first responders, unemployed parents, and victims of the virus.

“They don’t have the same situation,” he said.

Doyle argued the district aims to “reduce the opportunity gap, not enhance the opportunity gap.”

Doyle described the decision to go with the credit/no credit system as “grace and compassion to fellow students and families during this time of need.”

Others believe it’s a “misguided attempt to protect disadvantaged students,” the Union-Tribune reports.

“They’re blaming this on the Hispanic community,” Blanca Gonzalez, mother of a Rancho Buena Vista High School sophomore, told the news site. “They automatically assume that these students don’t work hard enough; that they don’t want to go to college.”

Parents asked the school board to revisit the credit/no credit grading system at its board meeting Thursday, but the district declined.

Parent told the Union-Tribune they plan to bring up the issue anyway during the public comment period.