They say that's inconvenient, and sometimes deadly.
"We should have the right to be able to have our kids to go to a school within the neighborhood, not to take two buses and walk to a school that they've been fighting in it for the last four or five years," said Cheryl Johnson, People for Community Recovery.
"If there's a possibility that a policy that you're putting into place is killing children and leading to escalated violence, you need to put the brakes on," said Julie Woestehoff, Parents United to Help Education.
Woestehoff said violence would be reduced if every community had a high-quality neighborhood school.
