Troubled Teens

Oh, the troubled youth of today.

Getting into fights. Spitting. Hitting. Beating each other up. Busting windshields.

And these are children from Clayton and Ladue - two of St. Louis' wealthiest suburbs.

Things are truly so bad that one of the area's most exclusive, private Catholic schools is going to implement mandatory drug testing.

So will someone, once again, please tell me why St. Louis' public schools are so bad - so unsafe - when we've reached the point where private schools are testing kids to make sure they're not junkies, drug addicts or bad influences?

I find no joy in reading that kids are behaving like assholes but it is surprising - especially in this city - that they're covering the misdeeds of the socially and financially fortunate.

A group of black girls get into a fight up on the North side and S.W.A.T. teams are deployed. It leads the evening news...with girls jerking their necks, talking about why come the fight started in the first place. It led the news for days!

To the best of my knowledge, I saw no reports that 50-70 suburban drunk students got into a fight in November. And today, I'm just reading about how the "community" just held a lasagna dinner to "work things out." C'mon, y'all...they're just kids...they're just a little wound-tight...worried about that entrance exam for Harvard.

Students have brought spitting, punching and stand-clearing brawls to some games. Hockey games - not sponsored by the schools - have been especially violent.

Players fought at a hockey game last year, students said; a girl got spit on at the football game this year, a boy got punched, a windshield was broken.

Then came the school's club hockey match this past December, held at the Webster Groves rink as usual. Between 500 and 600 people filled the stands, police said. Students said many were drunk.

With just minutes left in the game, the stands erupted.

Two Webster Groves police officers rushed in. But by then, 50 to 70 students were fighting, according to the police report. Between 100 and 120 students encircled one group.