While all students have been given the choice of returning to campus or remaining online, and most college-aged students are healthy, the number of cases being reported to LSU is growing rapidly, as it is at many other universities. Many students are not reporting their cases and continue to host large-scale parties.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused tragedy, a fact that it is undeniable. Killing tens of thousands in the US alone, and leaving even more unemployed, it should be everyone’s greatest concern; however, in many states, including my own, Indiana, something darker is lying beneath the façade of protecting us from a killer: an attack on women’s rights.

When you open your phone and scroll through TikTok, how many jokes do you see about COVID-19? How many times have you heard your friends call our school closures “Corona break” or “Corona-cation?” How many times have you heard someone say “It’s Corona time?” How many times have you thought to yourself, “I can see my friends during our time off as long as we stay 6 feet apart.”

I was in such despair, and I kept trying to blind myself to the reality of what was really going on to prevent that fear from growing within myself. I forced myself to believe that everything was going to be back to normal in a matter of days, when deep down, I knew this was much more serious than a couple of days off of school.