A fight this week on the Lufkin High School campus and a separate altercation at a local church's youth outreach ministry leads some to wonder what's wrong with today's youth.

The Lufkin church, which preferred not to be mentioned by name, said because of the incident on campus it will re-evaluate how the outreach program is done.

"We see violence on our campus sometimes, but it doesn't originate on our campus. It's usually people who are already at odds with one another," a youth pastor said. "We are offering a message of hope, love and peace. They have the choice to receive the message or not. Obviously, it wasn't received by these individuals."

But the problem doesn't just revolve around this latest incident said the pastor.

"There's something much deeper in this town that needs to be talked about, and that's the anger, violence and rage in these kids. Whether it's church or school, we all have to live together," he said. "As a youth pastor, I have my finger on the pulse. Spiritually and emotionally I'm sensing unrest in some of the students."

Lufkin ISD Superintendent Roy Knight said the school day was uneventful after Thursday morning's fight in which a mother and son were arrested.

"We put more police officers at the high school just to set the tone," Knight said. "Then we went about our business."

A licensed children's counselor since 1996, Allen Rush has seen his fair share of violent and angry kids, but the latest statistics from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention show teen violence is on the decline nationwide after peaking in the 1990s.

"Certainly it's public perception that juvenile violent crimes are up. We're just more aware of it," Rush said.

Rush alluded that some of the perception could be influenced by social mediums and the media, and that the problem may be more in how children are coping.

"Compared to 10 to 15 years ago when I started my practice, my impression is kids have fewer coping skills, not that they're any more angry," Rush said. "Parenting is a hard job, and parents find ways to help themselves, like with DVDs and video games. That may not be the best for the kids."

But that does not mean members of Lufkin's faith community aren't going to be more cautious in the future.

"After Wednesday night's altercation, it changed everything for us," the pastor said. "We have to make changes for the safety of our students."