every kid in this is....

In 1979, I was exactly the same age as the kids in this movie, and I can confirm that the vast majority of my peers were indeed scum. The movie goes a little bit over the top as far as the violent ending, but for the most part, the characters were pretty true to what I saw among the kids at my school: 13 year old jaded drug dealers, 15 year old girls who looked and acted like promiscuous 30 year olds, incorrigible delinquents, mindless vandals...

An obscure 1990s song whose lyrics accurately illustrate what was wrong with many early Gen Xers in their late-1970s early teens is called "Summer of Drugs" by Soul Asylum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwuSZAwUysM

My generation was trapped in the fallout of the Hippie era. We inherited all their negative social influences, drugs, promiscuity, irresponsibility, etc. but none of whatever positive traits the hippies may or may not have actually had.

Plus, a lot of supposedly "responsible" Boomer adults of that era also had really messed up values. All of this can be blamed on the social upheavals of the previous decade.

My parents were older, "Silent Generation" so I got a more traditional upbringing and didn't get sucked into a lot of the problems my peers were having at the time. As a result, I was an outcast for not doing drugs and I had to hang with the other nerds, playing D&D instead of partying.