I’m rather surprised by this comment, I went to a private girls school and we had none of that. I also just asked my son, he said there is very little at his high school.
Well I went to HS in the 80s, and here’s basically what I remember:
There were several distinct “cultures” in my school (probably similar in any upper-middle class school):
-“Hoods” basically listened to metal or Pink Floyd, hung out in the smoking section, wore jean jackets with Metallica logos and did their best to look like Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club
-“Jocks” were basically the guys who played traditional sports (football, basketball, etc) and dated cheerleaders.
-“Preps” were smarter guys/girls who dressed up a little nicer, usually played sports like track or soccer and did all kinds of extra-ciricular activities.
and there were smaller sub-groups like
-“AV Kids” who dressed all Goth or punk and were involved in school plays
-“Bongs” who were hoods who were enrolled in remedial or “bong” classes.
But basically, the groups aren’t well defined or anything. It’s kind of like American Pie. Sure you might have 5 jocks who always pal around. Usually it’s groups of 4-5 people who are all unique but somehow connected.
I kind of fit in a sort of “John Cussak” kind of way. Not outstanding at anything in particular or confined to a particular sterotype, but smart, funny, and friendly enough to get along with most people.
There wasn’t too much violence, random or otherwise. Maybe an occasional fistfight over a girl or someone being a dick or something. Or some loser gets in trouble for bringing a knife to school trying to look tough.
You had your typical social hierarchies that you find in any school.
Drugs and alchol were present. Mostly pot. I didn’t get laid that much but I’m sure many kids were having sex.
Sporting events were a big social thing. I kind of sucked at most sports so I did stuff like track or ice hockey. It is actually kind of amazing how playing a contact sport makes people look at you differently. I gave a shit about the football or basketball team but I liked going to the games just to hang out.
Other than sports related stuff, social activities consisted of the occasional house party, hanging out at a local fast food restuarant, a local diner, drinking in remote locations or driving around.
Teachers were ok I guess. You had Old Pissed Off Guy, Hippy Art Teacher, Hot Spanish Lady, Bitter Single Teacher, Gay English Teacher, Nerdy Biology Teacher, Eccentric Physics Teacher.
I think what makes American high school so difficult is that people expect it to live up to the John Hughes movie/American Pie/OC/90210 hype. Because of all the gossip, rumor-mongering, boasting and bullshit, everyone thinks everyone else is doing something more exciting than they are so they all feel like losers. We all assume the football jock must get laid every night.
If you don’t mind my asking, what schools? (If you do mind, that’s cool).
Growing up on Chicago’s North side, I went to St. Jeromes for grade school, which certainly wasn’t without it’s occasional violence and insanity. It was sort of like “Public School Lite”.
Then for H.S.: St. Gregory (again, “public school lite”). St. Gregs did have gang problems, lot’s of drug/alcohol abuse, and the occasional shooting near school grounds.
Then I went to Sullivan public H.S. (motto: fleshwounds don’t count for excused absences). Certainly not the worst in Chicago. Certainly not on any “best” lists, either.
Finally, I ended up at Evanston TWP H.S… That’s a HUGE public school (something like 1000 freshmen when I went). It’s actually a pretty nice school. It’s close enough to Chicago to still have the sporadic gang and drug problems, but the huge number of students that aren’t into that kind of crap sort of drowns it out. Full of cliques. That school is actually close to the schools often featured in John Hughes films. It’s actually between those schools and the Chicago public schools, so it has a nice mix - just to keep you on your toes.
All in all, I don’t think in any of my schools, an incident like the one described in the OP would be allowed to happen.