Kids will be kids. We’ve been saying it for years, sometimes as an explanation for actions that defy adult understanding, occasionally to dismiss or downplay the need for personal accountability, and to convince ourselves that the sometimes-alarming behavior we witness in the young people around us is “normal.”

It’s a scene guaranteed to set hearts racing, hands trembling, and blood pressure soaring—a worst-nightmare-come-true setting that has already lasted several hours too many.