But you see, none of that WAS a strain. The drug dogs, so what? We had fun trying to think of things to put in our lockers to bug them, cayenne pepper or whatever. The fights, yeah, they happen, but so what? We had no metal detectors (though lots of knives, I happen to know), guns were a rarity. A fight happened once every few weeks, and those always happened in certain groups, so I didn't have to worry about it. And the fire, well, the fire was fun, to be honest.
The problem I had to deal with was absolute apathy. I simply did not care whether I did well or not, whether I even graduated. I didn't do drugs, smoke, whatever. I was a good kid. I just didn't care. At all. Noone gave me a reason to.
The kids that have to deal with the metal detectors, et al, now, are used to it. Walk through this, so what? Random searches, boo hoo. Drug dogs, hey pup, howya doin? The police brutality, well, that kinda sucked, but it happens. The fights and guns are a problem, yes. Still, not quite so bad as most people think. Yeah, there are shootings, but they're actually quite rare.
Anyway. Enough of my ranting.