A Statement from the Lion’s Roar on COVID-19
Dear Readers,
As you all know by now, students will not be returning to Menchville this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
None of us saw this coming, and certainly none of us suspected how bad this situation would become. I recall tracking the virus in its early days with the rest of the staff, all of us naively thinking that it wouldn’t affect Virginia, not Newport News, not Menchville. While the numbers rose, we planned ahead with our other stories. Our sports writer was tackling the spring season and looking forward to the NCAA tournament. Another writer, a junior, was about to head off to the State Archery tournament, where Menchville’s team was expected to qualify for Nationals once again. Our many seniors on staff were talking about senior breakfast costumes and ironing out prom details. We had just published “The Journey Towards Graduation.”
Monarchs, I know this is not an easy time for anyone, particularly our Class of 2020. Your last few months of school have been taken from you, and with them the experiences that you have been looking forward to for over a decade of education. It is painful, it is unfair, and it is still difficult to believe. It’s alright to be disappointed.
I know that everything feels a little topsy-turvy right now, and unfortunately things are probably going to stay this way for the next few months. In the midst of all the pandemonium, though, know this- the Lion’s Roar isn’t going anywhere.
In times of trouble and uncertainty, it is the job of publications like this one to stay up and running, business-as-usual. The Lion’s Roar is committed to reporting student news, and we will continue to post stories on our website through the duration of this school year. The major publications right now might be full of fancy global maps and frightening figures, but we’ll be focusing on the news that matters most to the Monarch community and to you all, our readers, as students.
We’ve added a COVID-19 HQ section to the website, which we will be updating most frequently with the information that high school students should know during this pandemic. We’ll be covering a wide range of topics related to the pandemic, like information on dealing with pandemic anxiety, figuring out google classrooms, and keeping yourself busy during social distancing. In addition, we will try to periodically update some of our normal feature stories, like arts and entertainment reviews and Lion’s Den articles, just to give everyone a bit of a break from the news.
This is truly an unprecedented time for the country and for our schools, and we, students, teachers, and staff alike, are all trying to grapple with a new reality as long as this pandemic persists. During this time, we hope you can turn to the Lion’s Roar for a little sense of normalcy. As long as you keep reading, Monarchs, we’ll always keep reporting.
Stay safe, stay hopeful, stay inside.
Wishing you all the best from the Lion’s Roar