These can involve hallways, alcoves, bathrooms, parking lots and cafeterias. Unfortunately, school officials appear afraid to do it. Whether they are afraid of litigious parents or teen-agers themselves, it makes them so weak in the eyes of kids that little they do is taken seriously. The answer appears to be that many parents feel too unsure of themselves to set standards and values or lack the nerve and skills to enforce them. Some are simply afraid to say no, for fear of comparing poorly with other parents who are also afraid.
Most kids are pretty straight.
They weave through the hazards of schools like refugees in a mine field. Some of them, even those who toe the mark at home, take the opportunity of authority-free zones in school to break parental rules with impunity. It is eminently unfair to them and ultimately to all of us, because it allows too many to stumble into adulthood unprepared for anything but defiance.