Underground newsletters around high schools are very common. Even as we were creating this web page, a friend told us she had one similiar to ours at her school... Why are they so popular? Because they are able to express oppinions that cannot be vocalized without repurcussions. In the form of a 'zine, however, anything can be said and it is protected by the first amendment, right? Wrong. Maybe someone forgot to tell you, but we no longer live in the land once known as "America". We live in the land of the occasionally free, and the home of the cowering brave. Printing 'zines are completel legal, yet illegal actions occur from their opposers. The story of how the founders of "OUTSIDE!" got screwed over is a redundantly repetative one. Most of the people who are accessing this site probably have heard it many times before. This is about Pat Lee, and his underground 'zine entitled: "Kuhnspeeruhsee".

I know what your thinking... "What the hell kinda name is that for a 'zine!?" That is what I thought as well... however, it is pronounced as "Conspiracy", and it seems to have aroused quite a bit of publicity. A young man by the name of Patravutit Leelacharoenpol, Pat Lee for short, printed out thirty copies of his contraversial 'zine for his friends to view. Due to popular demand, Pat printed out 100 more copies and distributed them at his high school, McQueen High School in Nevada.

Unlike our ever so unoffensive (yeah right...) 'zine, Pat decided to "redicule" certain stereotypical groups in the school. Mostly the jocks and those with "school spirit". The headline of his first issue read, "Lancer (school mascot) spirit is dead. We burried the body." The paper shared one common purpose with ours, though. It was meant to be, "...a forum where students can write anonymously about the things that piss them off..." Cool enough, but after the initial shock of the first one, more was needed in the sequel. Supposedly, even the students felt the 'zine was "out of control". Students wrote in with "nasty" stories, and one girl submitted a poem she wrote for her english class and recieved an A- for... It was about a female security guard at their school, and it read: "Her chest is flatter than a three-day old beer"..."I think we would all like to see her die." It also called her a "whore", "bastard", and a "trigger-happy bitch". Of course, the entire poem was not printed anywhere I could see, so it is no doubt taken out of context. Pat did not print the guard's name, but since there was only one female security guard at the Washoe County School, it wasn't all too hard to decipher the code. The security guard filed a law suite, but FINALLY the justice system proved to be somewhat effective and ruled that it was an oppinion and was not libel.

The ultimate outcome was Pat's transfer to another school after a random locker check. It did not end there, however. Pat then passed out "Kuhnspeeruhsee" stickers and told the local media of his predicament. It was debated extensively. Ultimately, most agreed that the school district overreacted to the newsletter (sound familiar?). In his case, the Nevada ACLU took his case and came to a reasonable compromise... Pat could attend his old high school, but had to write a retraction, stop talking to "professional press" and do community service. I would have been mad at the outcome, but apparently it was somewhat suitable to him. Unfortunately, I have not been able to get a hold of Pat Lee anywhere! I searched for his web site, and it was taken down. Totally lame... I would love to talk to him about how he felt about the final outcome... seing as how we are not "professional press", I think he could talk to us. Oh well...

If there are anymore updates about Pat's case, condition or well being, we will let you know...