Developing a rationale for the high school underground press is the objective of this study. To accomplish this, principals, underground editors, and student editors were asked to rate six concepts and to complete an attitudes and beliefs scale, and thirteen high school underground newspapers and five major court decisions were examined using symbolic content analysis to determine the primary symbols and meanings of the publications. School is the strongest symbol throughout the newspapers. The major themes are that school is irrelevant, racist, oppressive, and inhuman but powerful because it provides a link to the larger system of government and to the executors of its power, the police and court systems. The dominant underlying theme in all of the newspapers is fear, danger, death, and punishment. The major themes of the legal cases are similar to those of the newspapers themselves. These include freedom, school violence, and authority. Libel and obscenity are not treated as major issues. The primary objective of the underground press is to unify students and make them aware of problems and also to gain legal access to fellow students without threat of punishment. (Author/TO)