John, you've conflated lots of anecdotes and horror stories in your first post to end up with Frankenstein's teenage step-child. It isn't easy raising children, not if you do a good job of it, but if you do a good job if it, it isn't the job from hell, either. I see a healthy cross-section of kids who play with my kids. While some of them can be annoying, my kids know my rules and they don't fail to let their friends know what the house rules are when they come over.

Schools are one of those "lowest common denominator" kinds of places, and there are always bad apples. You do what you can to teach your children how to survive in that environment, and you hope to hell they'll grow and thrive and outlive you. There are children in the middle and high school who are pretty scary, whose parents either aren't paying attention, aren't in control, or who don't care. I think they are the minority.

SRS