![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)
How COVID has been Effecting Rock Canyon in the Fourth Quarter So Far
Students sit in a half-empty classroom after returning to a full in-person schedule. Students returned March 22, and the school has already experienced quarantining students. “It seems like every time I come to class more and more people are online,” Aiden Macarthur 23’ said.
May 4, 2021
Monday March 22, students returned to school full in-person. This controversial decision was met with some backlash because many people felt as if it was too early after spring break to return since many families had just traveled and that COVID would just spread again around the school.
The school board in conjunction with the Tri-County Health Department made this decision because they felt that our ability to learn would be helped substantially, and most students would say that in this aspect, it worked. That being said, if schools can’t stay in session for more than a month, is it worth the risk?
A lot of people saw this coming with the halls being twice as full and the lunchroom becoming a breeding ground for sickness. Also, a lot of students don’t try to prevent the spread of COVID, even if it would have been possible with over 2,000 people in one building.
An email sent April 8 to parents about the possibilities of returning to online school stated that there was about a 150-200 rolling quarantine amount. Even with that number coming from Principal Andy Abner, it seems more likely that the numbers were likely a bit higher.
The DCSD website says that there are about 400 people in quarantine as of April 9. These numbers are apparently up to 48 hours behind but still paint a better picture of what many people seem to witness at school.
In general, the vaccine released to the public made people think COVID would be over before we knew it, but it seems that we might experience the effects of it for a bit longer than many people expected.
Rock Canyon returned in-person again for what they hope to be the last time. School gets out in a bit less than a month now, and it’s possible that we will make it all the way through the rest of the year.
That being said, nobody knows how many cases we will have going into this final stretch, but if it’s too high we could return to online school again. From what has happened so far it looks like we will most likely not go online again, but only time will tell.