If you look carefully, you can tell that the high school where the film was made is the same school used in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It was the high school from which John Hughes graduated.
I would also like to point out that these movies differed largely from teen movies in the early 80s (late 70s). Such movies as Over the Edge, My Bodyguard, the Outsiders, and one of my favorites Breaking Away. These movies display suburbia as ticking time bomb.
It also strengthened teenagers reputations as being misfits. Personally, I like these movies because of their coming of age feel. It is also interesting to point out that if these movies, specifically Over the Edge, represent with some accuracy society during that time period, then then problems teenagers have faced for the past 20 years have changed little. This is contrary to popular belief.
But what this says is that violence in today's society is not a result of things introduced to society in the past 20 years, but a result of something else.