The Bear Facts: The Blake Middle School’s Old Newspaper

The Blake Bear Bugle is one of its kind. Or is it? Most people don’t know this, but the Blake Middle School had a newspaper before this one. It was called The Bear Facts and was published from 1987 to 2002. It was published once a quarter and interpreted and explained what was happening at Blake. Many students were part of it, and for many years, it was advised by Ms. Mary Walters, Ms. Amy Walters’ mom.

“Being a part of The Bear Facts gives aspiring artists, writers, and computer whizzes a chance to strut their stuff! With Mrs. Stockdale’s [a past advisor of The Bear Facts] nudging, students create their own publication to reflect middle school life. From news to interviews, and from puzzles to poetry, The Bears Facts is a wonderful collection of the middle school spirit,” said a yearbook from 2000.

The Bear Facts published many things, but most were related to Blake in some way. It had articles about middle school sports, articles about middle school news, and articles featuring specific students, such as a kid who had interesting pets. It had puzzles, want ads, and opinions. It even had a humorist at one point.

“I have a lot of happy memories about it…just the quality of the articles they did,” said Mary Walters.

Creating the newspaper wasn’t easy. Here is a short excerpt from my interview with Mary Walters:

Mary: How many are on your staff?

Gabriel: I think about 15, but not all of them come regularly.

Mary: Right. And that’s the problem. And those were always the problems. People aren’t 100% responsible no matter what age they are. And so the hardest thing in the newspaper was getting everybody to do what they said what they were going to do.

So, the main challenge with the newspaper was that people didn’t take it seriously. That is, most people didn’t take it seriously. Some students, like Robby Bershow '98, took it very seriously. “[They] have deadlines and [they] want to meet those deadlines,” Mary said. Mary remembers students coming to her house to finish the newspaper.

“‘This is Saturday and we have to have this out by Monday, so you better come and do this’” Mary remembers saying.

Another challenge for Mary Walters was not taking over. She wanted it to be a student-run newspaper. “It’s not easy,” Mary said about running a newspaper, “and then the layout itself. You know, lining up pictures, to make sure that you have the columns that are properly set and are balanced, so you don’t have things that are all over the place. That’s a lot to learn,”

In the early 2000s, technology was rapidly advancing. Students were no longer interested in a hard copy newspaper. Also, it was around this time that Amy Walters started working at Blake. Together, Amy and Mary Walters came up with a way to make and deliver the news to the Middle School in a more modern way. They started a newscast, called BNN — Blake News Network. It lasted for many years, and artifacts from it, such as the news anchor’s desk, can be found in Amy Walters' room.

“Everything is a lot of work and you always have to say that it’s worth it and it was for a long time” Amy Walters said about BNN.

The Bear Facts served to educate and entertain the Blake Middle School. And although it’s not the same, The Blake Bear Bugle serves the same purpose. Hopefully, you now have a glimpse of the challenges, the joys, and the inner workings of newspapers—both The Bear Facts and The Blake Bear Bugle.