![Minutes before the Activities Fair in the gym, president Abhi Gowda ‘26 prepares the stall for his club Helping Hands, Sept. 4. A relatively new club, Helping Hands was co-started by Gowda and focuses on assisting the homeless, and just last year they succeeded in raising a couple hundred donations to send to shelters. This year, they have goals to expand, with hopes to increase volunteer opportunities and take in-person trips to shelters, as well as extend their help beyond just homeless people. “The Activities Fair gives a lot of underclassmen the opportunity to really get to know the Canyon culture, and it gives them many opportunities for service and volunteering,” Gowda said. “[Through the Activities Fair,] I hope to find a bunch of new and passionate members about our club and just get our name out there and spread awareness to the cause that we’re fighting for.”](https://rockmediaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/1-2-1200x885.jpg)
![The winter guard team makes fifth place at the state championship finals in the Denver Coliseum, March 30. The team performed to Barnes Country's “Glitter and Gold,” lead by coaches Margo Sanford, Blair Bickerton and Anna Orgren. In their class there were a total of nine groups participating, and the top five who made it to finals received a plaque. “[Walking onto the stage] is very nerve-wracking, but also very exciting as well. When you first start color guard there's a lot of anxiety and uncertainty when you first perform in front of an audience, but once you've done it for a while, it starts to become the best part of the season,” Ella West ‘25 said. “It's very fulfilling to see an audience react to something you've put your heart and soul into.”](https://rockmediaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Both-socal-media-nd-website-main-1-1200x846.jpg)
![April marks the 25th anniversary of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, created by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC). This month is to spread awareness of the harassment, assault and abuse that happens around the world. The symbol that represented the month was a teal ribbon; however, some survivors of assault create different symbols and movements like the TikTok trend in 2022, where survivors would tattoo Medusa on their body, in honor of her backstory in Greek Mythology. “I don't think [this month is known] at all. I rarely see anybody talk about it. I rarely see much of an emphasis on posting it online, or much discussion about it, and I feel like there needs to be way more discussion,” an anonymous source said. “I think just validating every experience that a person has gone through, regardless of the degree of it, the severity, is an essential step into making sure that people are aware that this is a very real problem in a society and that we need to do better in addressing it.”](https://rockmediaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_0011-1200x900.jpg)
![Lesbian Visibility Day is April 26, and it’s a holiday to celebrate the lesbian community of the world. Lesbian Visibility day was established in 2008 by many queer activists and organizations who sought to raise more awareness for lesbian history and culture. “So this is why during Lesbian Visibility [Day] we celebrate and center all lesbians, both cis and trans, while also showing solidarity with all LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary people,” Linda Reily, in an article written by her, said.](https://rockmediaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Lesbian-Visibility-day.jpeg)
We Need a Covid Curve
The way to help students in these unprecedented times is to apply a Covid curve.
media by Kira ZIzzo
The featured image for the “We Need A Covid Curve” editorial.
April 22, 2021
5 weeks until finals week.
4 weeks until seniors are gone.
3 weeks until senior finals.
2 weeks until AP tests.
1 week until AP class finals…
Yet, I am writing this from my bedroom. As students this semester, we have gone through hybrid, fully in-person, and fully virtual learning models: the three headed monster. We have dealt with many different schedules. It seems like every few weeks, we have to adapt to something new. With so little time left in the year, we are back online.
Being back online has thrown all of us for a loop.
Instead of being able to be in class and collaborate with my classmates a week before my math final, I’m stuck in my room doing these assignments on my own.
Of course it was a justified decision to put us online, but putting us online this late in the year without a curve or a little help is unacceptable. Many students were holding on to a ledge approaching this last month, but being sent online right now with no help has basically just kicked us off the ledge.
Students are being forced to study in unfavorable circumstances. Stress levels are at a high across the entire school. Kids are burnt out and dealing with so much. They need help.
In a recent study by NBC News, nationwide, 39% of students have shown signs of depression, 66% are battling loneliness, and 13% of students have thought about taking their own life in the past year.
The way to help students right now is to apply a Covid Curve.
“We one hundred percent need a Covid curve or something to help us this semester,” Dylan Greer ‘22 said. “This is probably the most stressed and worst I’ve felt my entire life.”
A Covid curve is not a whole new idea. When we went online in the fall, we received a Covid curve as well. Going online at the end of the second semester is much worse than going online at the end of first semester due to final exams and AP tests.
Last semester, we had a Covid Curve of twelve percent. For example, an 88% and above was an A, 76% to 87.9% was a B, 64% to 75.9% was a C, and so on and so forth.
Some may say this is an easy way out, but we tend to forget that we are in a pandemic that has been going on for a year. The school should have planned to help students out with virtual classes, yet no new resources or policies have been implemented this semester to do so. Now, I’m not putting the blame of something as big as a pandemic on them, of course this is unpredictable and we are all in this together, but we need to help students out in these tough times.
In a recent Instagram survey of over 400 Rock Canyon students, 86% said that their mental health has gotten worse with online school and 83% have said their grades have worsened or they are worried about them dropping with finals coming up.
The school’s goals are to help students and guide them towards success. Our school’s mission statement is “To Empower, To Explore, To Encourage, and To Excel in Education ”. The only way to empower, explore, encourage, and help students excel this semester is to apply a Covid curve.