The program is too intelligent to fail to recognize the inherent hardships of raising teens, especially in light of the massive social pressures and a cultural climate with very conflicted views of morality. But it keeps coming back to the suggestion of parents who are too tired, too ignorant or too needy themselves to offer the necessary diligence and discipline. . . As the film moves beyond the outbreak itself, it offers up solid examples of how the kids seemed, mostly, to be searching for meaning and are still having a hard time finding it. A Christian rock band briefly drew a following among kids who weren't necessarily Christians, and the kids who found a way to reconnect with their parents come off as the least shattered of all those interviewed. By the end of harrowing and instructive programs, some of the things a trio of girls who weren't part of the outbreak say make you think Conyers, and all the American places like it, is just a few condoms away from it happening all over again.
Bullets get the headlines, but there are less deadly ways kids express their alienation.
On camera the teens they interviewed sound desperate for rules and values. Those involved in the sex clique did so to fill a vacuum, they say. Money did not make their lives less hollow. It was just too hard. An outbreak of syphilis affecting 200 teens finally exposes the nonstop nefariousness.