I have to confess that, probably like many of you, I've been concerned about the current generation of children for quite some time. While I don't have kids myself, I've heard horror stories from friends who do. For example, one removed her daughter from public school the day she came home from fourth grade telling her that she had to make some tough decisions: whether or not she was a boy or girl and if she was gay or straight. I've seen the teenage children of people I know cheer on Hamas and Luigi Mangione on social media and throw out F-bombs at their parents' friends and relatives who disagree with them.
Charlie Kirk's murder has reinforced this idea in some ways. From colleagues here at PJ Media to friends I've known since elementary school, I learned just how big of an impact he's had on that generation, which is great. But at the same time, I've seen many teenagers and young people celebrate his death. While I wouldn't necessarily call his assassin a child, he is young, and it's been chilling to go inside his world — one filled with teens and young adults who believe they're animals, boys who think they are girls, and kids who think that killing someone who they disagree with is not that big of a deal.
The headlines I've seen lately aren't making me feel much better, particularly the ones from Volusia County in Florida.
I was perusing the news today, and I saw a story out of Deltona about a 13-year-old Deltona Middle School student who was arrested earlier this week for doing something incredibly stupid. He reportedly filmed himself loading a gun and playing with it, while singing along to a song about killing people. He then sent the video to other kids at the school who were scared that this was some kind of threat, and they, understandably, did not go to school the next day.
NEW: 13-year-old Deltona Middle School student arrested for sending video of himself loading a gun with rap lyrics about k*lling
— Unlimited L's (@unlimited_ls) September 16, 2025
He filmed himself loading and handling a gun and sent the video to other students, deputies said
The video included rap lyrics about taking a life… pic.twitter.com/qZmK3PlZl9
But wait, there's more. According to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, it's the third kid they've arrested for making such threats within the span of a few days. Last week, they arrested a 15-year-old who "wrote a threat on his school laptop to bring a gun to Deltona High School and shoot another student," as well as a 13-year-old who "drew an AR-15 style rifle on his desk at River Springs Middle School with the words 'f*** my school' and a date and time." River Springs is located just north of Deltona in Orange City. Both boys claimed they were bullied and were simply angry and reacting to it.
But wait, there's even more. On Saturday night, deputies from Volusia County Sheriff's Office received word that the alarm at Friendship Elementary School in Deltona had gone off, and when they arrived on the scene, they found that a glass door was shattered and someone had destroyed the library. Bodycam footage shows broken furniture, books torn and tossed about, and a general mess that officials say will cost the school system about $50,000.
The sheriff's office released photos of the alleged vandals, who turned out to be 12- and 13-year-olds. Their mothers saw the photos and turned their sons in to police. The boys broke in and did the damage during the daytime, but reportedly returned that night to revisit their work, which seems to have triggered the alarm. Their charges include two counts of burglary, two counts of trespassing on school grounds, criminal mischief, and theft.
Volusia County, which sits along the Atlantic coast in Central Florida, has a population of 612,000 or so people. In addition to Deltona and Orange City, it's home to places like Daytona Beach, Port Orange, Ormond Beach, New Smyrna Beach, and DeLand. It's big, but by Florida standards, it's not that big. It's the Sunshine State's 12th-most populated county.
I couldn't find specific and/or reliable recent crime statistics, but I did see that the crime rate is 2-3% below the national average, depending on whom you believe. The most recent statistics I could come up with were from 2020 and actually showed a decrease in crime between 2014 and 2020.
Of course, I don't live there and don't stay on top of the local news — and maybe this is all a coincidence, bad timing, or a fluke of the news cycle — but it's troubling that at least five boys this young were arrested for such serious crimes within the span of four or five days. Whether it's a problem specific to that county or yet another sign that this generation is in crisis, it makes me uneasy.
