The bottom line is to know as much as possible about a child's friends and how the child is spending his or her time. Check out the child's web page. Relationships with other adults can buffer the dangers of peer pressure. Although there is no conclusive research about the negative impact of large high schools on teen behavior, it is certainly true that at-risk youth can easily fall through the cracks in a large high school. This is especially likely if their grades are not a problem and their behavior is not very disruptive.
Violence is Acceptable .
In their government class last fall, the two boys reportedly produced a video depicting themselves as hit men who could be hired to kill jocks who picked on other students. According to students in the class, most of their classmates also produced videos with violence or sex, so their video did not raise particular concerns. In their creative writing class, the two boys also depicted murder and mayhem, according to classmates interviewed by the Washington Post. Of course, violence is pervasive in much of America. He points out that although many people are aggressive, it is often impossible to predict what will set them off.