Last week I illustrated my frustration with today’s high school students who seem to have taken over with disrespect and narcissism as their guide. After reading about a 15 year-old girl who was gang raped this month at her high school homecoming dance Oct. 24, I rest my case.

According to cnn.com, “as many as 20 people were involved in or stood and watched the rape.” The incident took over two and half hours where many people saw it happening but did nothing. Only two braggarts gave it away when someone inside heard them boasting about the incident and called the police.

What kind of world is this? The incident happened in Richmond, Cal., which has one of the worst crime rates in the country. Still, a school should be a place of safety and security for those who live in troubled neighborhoods. Where were the chaperones, the parents, the conscience of the people who looked on?

The ages of the accused range from 16-21 according to telegraph.co.uk, old enough to know better, old enough to have developed a conscience. The police say that “the gang mentality” took over. That is no excuse. What kind of children is America raising and how much worse does it have to get before we stop these atrocities?

These kinds of incidents happen on a daily basis in American high schools. This event comes on the heels of a battery incident last year where a 16 year-old girl was beaten by her fellow cheerleaders as someone taped the incident and launched it on YouTube. The cheerleaders present just laughed as it happened and stated that it was in response to “trash talk” that the girl had posted on her MySpace page.

What could possibly possess someone to commit these acts ever in their lives, let alone as a teenager? There is something seriously wrong with America’s children.