In generations past, the high school rebel was the boy all the girls wanted and all the boys wanted to be. He was the one in the leather jacket who went to class only to make snide remarks, drove too fast, and talked too slow. Jump forward to the end of the twentieth century, and the high school rebel is the boy who students ignore, the one who sits in the back of the classroom and never talks, wears all black and keeps to himself. He is the last student anyone would fear, but probably the most dangerous. He doesn't want to take advantage of th

Lately, as youth violence has been more scrutinized by the public, many new laws have come into effect. The debate over what to do with juvenile offenders is one that will never be solved, but can be compromised to come up with a good solution. Currently, offenders who appear in juvenile court do not receive a criminal record. Therefore, when a child appears in front of a new judge, he will have no way of knowing how many times the child has convicted the same crime. The law of dismissing children from a criminal record was designed to protect them from stigma and prejudice, but more often there are negative results received not by the child, but by their victim. States have experimented with such things as punishing parents for crimes their children commit, and many have began to charge children accused of major crimes as adults. However, none of these laws have been threatening enough, as fourteen-year-old Arthur Bates has proven. Arthur spent many of his early years in mental facilities, but after it was decided that nobody could help him he was sent home to his mother. One day Arthur chose a house at random and planned on robbing it. Once he got in he realized the owner of the home, Lillian Piper, was asleep inside. Arthur proceeded to rape and kill Miss Piper, and then have a bowl of ice cream from her freezer and drive off in her Cadillac. About an hour later police, to whom he immediately confessed, stopped him. He then told them, "You can't do anything to me. I just fourteen." He was sentenced to seven months in reform school.

In 1994, children under 18 were 244% more likely to be killed by guns than they were in 1986. Gun owners of all ages state that their number one reason for owning a handgun is protection from criminals, yet they are 43 times as likely to kill a friend or family member than they are a criminal. In the 1980's it appeared that teen pregnancy was going to be the downfall of American society, but as Marion Wright Edelman, president of the children's advocacy group puts it, " The crisis of children having children has been eclipsed by the greater crisis of children killing children." Between 1979 and 1993, guns killed more than 60,000 children, a figure greater than the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War. Also, a child in the United States is 15 times as likely to die as a result of gunfire than is a child in war-torn Northern Ireland. The statistics only succeed in proving what is becoming incredibly obvious; guns have become the clearest evidence of a growing despair among many American teenagers. As one young man puts it, " That's just the way it is. Guns are just a part of growin

Some common words found in the essay are:
American Epidemic, That's Guns, Liberties Union, Jackson Detroit, Miss Piper, Public School, Unfortunately Chester's, Miss Britain, Tommy Matola, Robert Contreras, own life, save own life, criminal record, crisis children, school football, millions children, save own, school rebel, juvenile offenders, metal detectors, rebel boy, school rebel boy,
Approximate Word count = 1788
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)