This is the feature section of Beverly Underground Newspaper. Here you will find miscellaneous articles from both staff writers and readers such as yourself. 

To see a previous issue of this column, please go to the "Archives" button above.

Letters

Something on your mind? Feel free to email us with your comments, suggestions, questions, praise, criticism, issues you are concerned about, etc. Here are some of the letters we have received:

Dear Publisher:

      My name is Jesse R. Rodriguez and I am a journalism teacher at Memorial High School in San Antonio, TX. The reason that I have contacted you this evening is because I think you guys have done an excellent job with your underground publication. I am extremely impressed with the skill that your staff has exhibited in their writings, especially the article on BHHS not making the grade when it comes to testing, test scores and college entrance. I applaud your efforts. Keep up the good work and keep me in mind as an e-subscriber to your online issues.

      Would you mind if my class used some of your articles in their school paper as examples of how writing should be? The district that I work for is one of the poorest in the state of Texas and it would be interesting if the kids could get a true glimpse of how the "other side" lives. I realize that this is a strange request, but I think that your articles could be enlightening for our economically disadvantaged readers.

      Take it into consideration and know that I will not allow my students to plagiarize the work of your writers. Anything used by your paper will be given proper credit, including your website. Maybe you can see yourselves as correspondents to Texans, or a form of a high school based Associated Press.

I wish you continued success with your paper.

- Jesse R. Rodriguez

San Antonio, TX

      I can't even begin to express how much I LOVE the feature you did in the last issue on bypassing the internet restrictions. Those damn filters block just about everything, and FINALLY I was able to use the internet at school and not some censored idea that the district has of the internet. That was all great until I tried to use it a few days ago. THE SCHOOL BLOCKED EVERY PROXY SITE LISTED!!!! The BHHS computer people should not be allowed to look at Beverly Underground if that's what they are going to be doing with the information. You guys write all these stories about areas that need improvement at the school, and does the administration listen to the good advice? No. Then as soon as you print a story about bypassing the internet filters, the school is all over it and blocks that. That's bullshit.

- Anonymous proxy user

Beverly Hills, CA

Other Underground Publications

Since we are starting a new school year, we have received many emails this summer from other aspiring journalists across the country who want to start their own underground papers. Here are a few such letters:

      I have looked through your website and found so many things that I have loved. I found your website as I searched up journalism topics trying to create my own underground newspaper. I read about how we could reproduce what you have written and I want to thank you so much for giving me somewhere to model my own underground newspaper from.

      I live in one of those small senseless "villages" in the backwoods of Utah at a school called Parowan High. There are many opinions that I have gathered from the students just by overhearing what they truly believe. I want to make these opinions stand out. I am forming my first underground newspaper so that my peers can say what they want without discrimination. 

      I don't know exactly when I will have this site published but I hope to have it up by this month. I want to thank you again for your patriotism of the first article. Thank you so much for creating your site and fighting for it. 

      I was also wondering if you had a few helpful links or some words of advice with your experience if you have the time.

Thanks again.

Parowan, UT

Hello,

      We are interested in writing an underground newspaper in our school. We did a websearch to check out what underground school papers should look like. We found yours and read it for a while. It is very nicely written and composed. We have some points that we are unsure of and were wondering if you could help us, being that you have experience with writing an underground paper. 

-What was the initial reaction of the Teachers and Administration upon the release of issue 1?

-How did the students respond? What kind of student participation can be expected?

-It seems best that writers and creators of the paper be anonymous. Are all of your writers completely anonymous? And how do you achieve this?

-How is your paper distributed? Is it an online only deal, or are there physical papers being distributed?

-Have you received any threats from the administration? If so what were they and were they followed through?

      Thanks for your help, we feel you are doing a great job with your paper and would like to see if this success could be carried over into Valley Central NY.

Valley Central, NY

To whom it may concern,

      Hi, I am a senior at Foothill High School in Pleasanton California. I am on the high school newspaper staff, but my friends and I wanted to start an underground newspaper. Since you are the publisher of your underground newspaper, and it is very well known, I was wondering if you had any tips for us. We also wanted to know if you had the number for any publications company that would publish our work for a cheap price.

I look forward to hearing from you

Pleasanton, California

Hi,

      I'm from a very small, EXTREMELY close-minded school in Alabama (go figure...). My journalism class prints a paper every two weeks, but 75% of the stories we write for it don't get published because they express "negative opinions". All we can write about is what my teacher calls "fluffy stuff". We are not allowed to write about anything that we think is important, so my friend Bradley and I are working on an underground paper, but there are still a few things that we're unsure about. Any advice you can give to us would be great. Thanks.

Alabama

Graphics Ideas

Public identities are always looking for eye-catching graphics that tell something about what they are doing for the community. To help public relations within the district, the Beverly Underground artists have created a few pictures that will bring new insight to this great school.

The Images:

It's becoming hard to loiter about the campus in certain areas without smelling the aroma of freshly burnt cannabis. Due to these pleasant smells that linger about the campus, we thought an advertisement of this omnipresent herbal odor would be appropriate.

Between concerned parents, vigilant lawyers, and various media outlets, the district has had to face the question of why an oil well would be placed on campus. We thought we should spare the BS, and once and for all, enlighten the public as to the motive.

Beverly Underground actually suggested this minor revision to the school slogan back in September of last year, but since the district has yet to act on this marvel idea, we thought a graphical representation might make them more prone to adopting the idea.

I was in math class last year (in the 100's hallway) taking a test. I was heavily concentrating on the difficult test, and as sweat started to drip from my forehead, I looked down to make sure I wasn't wetting my shirt - and what did I see? No other than about 20 termites crawling on my shirt! I need not go on further with the story (let me put it this way: the spectacle ended with a hefty bill for damages to the desk that I had to cover). But after working a few extra shifts to pay off the damages, I thought to myself, "how great", what other schools have termites? We should feel proud. So, what better way of promoting the school than notifying the community of the marvelous creatures that can be found on campus!

- Various Artists

Interesting Site Statistics p.2

Notable Quotes

Please Email Us if you have any funny or thought provoking original quotes. Be sure to include the quote and the name of the person who said it.