Dear FRONTLINE

Our children are indundated with sex so how can it be explained to them that this behavior is inappropriate? Parents have lost touch with their children. They need guidance and limits.

Pressure does nothing but increase the behavior. And communities need to try to focus on the needs of their teens. Teens have been left on their own for too long.

cathy eid
lafayette, la

Dear FRONTLINE

I believe this is part of a larger issue, the issue being the emptiness of today's American culture. Look around, Americans work more hours than any other industrialized nation. We have both parents working to pay the bills. What do these bills consist of...the new house, the new SUV? All of these are products of the new empty American dream. Look at what happens, shootings in school, pre-teen sex and drug use. Hell I'm 24 and when I was 12 I was still playing with my GI Joe's. Today's mainstream American culture is so void of genuine substance only concerned with material wealth...what about the true wealth..... being real with those you love? This may seem like yet another rant, but I am frustated with the inability of the American public at large in its ignorance of the real issue. It's not TV, movies, or music that are corrupting the youth. It's the pursuit of the new empty American dream and all of its superficiality associated with it which is leading to the downfall of our youth and our society at large.

Charles McGinnis
Houston, TX

Dear FRONTLINE

As a teacher, I am confounded by the parents' numbness to their own childrens' lives. I see parents on this program and in my own community watching their own childrens' lives as if it where a bad program that can't be turned off and only hope that the next season will be better. We pack children into intense overpopulated social cauldrens without the necessary emotional ties to their own parents. Student pop. of 2500+ per High School appear to be cost effective, but with this lack of emotional connectedness combined with social needs, desires, and pressures placed on adolescents by high school environments the result is evident in people that feel completely out of control of their own lives.

michael cole
rio rancho, nm

Dear FRONTLINE

I was shocked at your program. I can't believe the depth of moral void that our nations children are experiencing . Some don't even know why they do it, as one boy named Keith alluded to. I also observed other's feedback that targeted the "lost parents" in the kids lives and their lack of control. However, if a whole village is needed to raise a child, where are the other responsible people? Yes this is a parental issue, but it's larger than that. Examine closely the destructive messages the media is sending our children. Our free market society makes the grave mistake of selling sex and violence via television, video and internet, then we have the audacity to wonder why our teens are so messed up. Doesn't the media realize they sold it to them in the first place. The media makes is "acceptable." The media needs to take a responsible leap forward to not let that lifestyle be the norm.

Minneapolis, MN

Dear FRONTLINE

The parents of these teenagers alarmed me with their lack of discipline and knowledge of their children's activities. As noted in the film they were looking for external factors to explain the degrading behavior of their children. Lack of control and discipline on the parents part will ultimately leave society to deal with these troubled children. Instead of giving the latest designer toys and clothes try instilling values and morals in these kids. These are the same parents who think that most minority children are a bad influence and a menance to society. This is a wake up call to surburia--the degrading behaviors of your kids would put any behaviors by inner city children to SHAME!!! To think that many of these people look down on minority children--take a look in your own households, the problem lies within and also in the mirror.

Westfield, MA

Dear FRONTLINE

As I read the discussion postings, it occurred to be that denial is not isolated in Conyers, GA. I live in a small town and work at a chemical dependency residential rehab facility. The kids in your show say the very same things as the young adults in our facility. No boundaries, feeling alone, no one seemed to really care what they were doing, running around all the time. WAKE UP PEOPLE! These are your children, not an isolated group. Teens everywhere feel this way.

Claire Winfield
Palacios, Texas

Dear FRONTLINE

I was pleased to see your report on these teens. I am a 35 year old single Dad with a 11 year old daughter. I noticed that the children that really had the answer to the hopelessness of these kids were the group of "born again" Christian teenagers. Maybe they are on to something. How about doing a follow up show with these kids and other solutions that are working. We've seen the problem - let's tell the truth about the answer.

Michael McDade
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Dear FRONTLINE

This is one of the saddest examples of parental disregard of their responsibility that is absolutely necessary to raise "healthy" teenagers in this brutal world! It seems parents are too busy trying to please and befriend their children rather than guiding and teaching them right from wrong. It is not always easy to say no or set curfews, etc. - it's called "tough love!"

Julie DeFrancesco
saco, me

Dear FRONTLINE

I am appalled that you would not search out the parents who do challenge their children to uphold strong standards and that help their children establish convictions of their own. I can't believe you would conclude the program with such a hopeless message. Their is hope, their are many thousands of teens taking moral stands and sticking to them. It would be a nice change to see these teens portrayed as the strong, courageous people that they are.

Trudy Carret
Ottawa, IL

Dear FRONTLINE

100% of the young women on the show expressed regret for their actions, yet very few, if any, of the young men expressed any remorse. Are we surprised by this? By "normalizing" pre-marital sex through explicit sexual education and media glamorization, we, as a society, have removed the only real weapon young girls have to resist the male sexual agressiveness. Namely, a POSITIVE peer pressure which states that good girls don't do it.

Tim Mullane
Cumming, GA

Dear FRONTLINE

i strongly feel that this report only represented the female opinions and stories. the interviewers never asked the males if they regretted sex or how they felt about it at all. the responsibility of sex is a double standard that places almost all responsibility on the females. this program made that very obvious. to the interviewers and all males out there i have this to say, "it takes two to tango." all of those guys who lined up to have sex with that drunk girl knew that she was not in her right mind and took advantage of that. i am not stating that it is only the males' fault, just that it is the equal responsibility of both parties involved. the program seemed to state that it is very bad and wrong to have sex if you are a girl but said nothing about the sexual morality of the boys.

maryann calhoun
acworth cobb co., ga

Dear FRONTLINE

As a middle school Science teacher I think this is a story that parents and some students should see. Our Social Worker could spend a week talking about this tape, the choices the kids made, the consequences, and the regrets. There are lessons to be learned. A comment already posted wondered why the students were not thinking about their future. These students are not thinking about anything except what they will be doing the next night. The message to parents is to stop being complacent. Be honest with your children, and set limits. Thank you Frontline for great television.

Jay Marshall
Richmond, Illinois

Dear FRONTLINE

I grew up in Conyers and graduated from Salem High school in 1999 with many of my friends. We're all virgins, we're all attending college. That documentary picked out the most disturbed fraction of our population... those whose parents have lost all control over their children. We're not all like that. Nor are we super-preppy snobs who had to attend a private school to be individuals. You discussed in your documentary the two extremes found in our quaint little town. I think our people have played you folks for fools with their over-dramatic camera performances. I do not consider any of the people I saw "normal." The affluent, lazy parents sicken me. I was offended by how you portrayed my safe town. I have never been approached by any drug-dealers. I have never thought twice about saying "no" to sex. Growing up in Conyers was one of the best things that happened to me and I was truely offended by the majority of the program and the way in which the interveiws were lead. Lets try for some objective journalism in the future, hm?

M K
Conyers, GA

Dear FRONTLINE

i was so depressed to see this report. i am an 18 year old female, currently a freshman at DePaul University, and I could see right through all those girls on the interview. And I also saw through myself, how when I was that young I was like them in many aspects. But I just couldn't believe how clueless they were. It makes me so sad to see such beautiful, intelligent girls give up and bow down to those ridiculous pressures from society. I wish their parents would open thier eyes. I heard so many parents saying, "well, they have to figure it out themselves" and "we weren't there enough." it seems like all those parents just gave up and let themselves believe that they could never compete with society. But I'm saying that parents are the only hope. I would never be where I am today if it weren't for my parents. No matter what they think, their support and attention and input means so much, maybe not immediately, but when it really matters. I hear these girls saying that sex is just for guys and drinking is so cool, and I wonder, don't they realize that these things go hand in hand. If they go out and do drugs and have sex, they miss the point entirely. Sex is about sharing love and intimacy with someone you love, not a party favor. People who enjoy sex are the people who do it right, with someone they love, where they are sharing and learning with that person. It breaks my heart that these girls who have so much to offer are being ignored and neglected by parents and society. Someone needs to help them realize that there is so much more to live than that. Thanks.

kadima palles
chicago, IL

Dear FRONTLINE

The story was tainted by being done by Hollywood media types. It seemed that the story just focused on a communities' version of the rich, famous and beautiful. It didn't seem to be about the majority of people I knew in high school. The girls in the Jesus School were geourgeous. No wonder they get hit on. Not every young woman looks like that. The movie makers need to bring themselves down out of the Howard Stern world.

Gary C
Knox, Indiana