Elizabeth Meyer-Gendered harassment in secondary schools: Understanding teachers’ (non) interventions

Meyer writes that gendered harassment "includes any behavior that polices and reinforces traditional heterosexual gender norms such as (hetero) sexual harassment, homophobic harassment, and harassment for gender non-conformity." (pg.1)  I noticed the words: polices, traditional, and non-conformity within this quote and knew that these were intentionally placed into the quote.  I have realized from many of these readings that the language in which an idea is stated has a lot of worth.  The reality of this quote is that this is done all the time and from my experiences many people look the other way.  I remember reprimanding a couple boys last year at lunchtime for using a very derogatory term towards another boy.  After telling them that their words were cruel, I immediately walked them down to the principal.  In my thoughts, I believed these students would be in a lot of trouble and lose a privilege.  I was surprised to see them ten minutes later at recess throwing the football around.  To this day, I am not sure what was said in the office to those young boys.  If it were my classroom, I would have taken a privilege away as stated in the class rules.  I realize that the loss of a privilege is nothing compared to the hurt caused by some students but I don't think administration would let me take it any further for fear of parental involvement.  I think that if one of the students hit another student there would have at the least been a one day suspension.  Why does physical bullying override any kind of mental or emotional bullying? I know that all kinds of bullying are damaging but in my opinion, emotional bullying can be worse.  No student, teacher or principal should encourage an environment where students are allowed to judge, discriminate, and act cruelly towards anyone.  

If teachers and principals want the students to act with compassion, understanding, and kindness, they can't allow this to be the elephant in the room that no one wants to address.  I read in Meyer's article that some of the teachers felt they had to hurry up and cover the material.  These teachers felt very pressed for time and clearly stated that they don't address this close-minded behavior from some students towards other students.   One teacher claims, "I don’t stop name-calling if I’m too tired, if there are set things I need to get through in a lesson. I know my lesson is going to take 60 minutes, I’ve only got 70 minutes to deliver it, I’ve got 10 minutes to waste. Right now my job is being a teacher and I have to get through the math before the end of the year. It’s not on my priority list."(pg.9)  I don't know why these people choose teaching as a profession if they don't want to address what some of their students have to face from their peers.  How can a student retain knowledge and concepts in the classroom when their heads are filled with the fear and anticipation that someone will bully them for being who they are? Meyer raises the idea that perhaps some teachers and administration allow and dismiss certain things in the classroom based on their own beliefs.  I believe that this does occur and it is disturbing.  This relates to the barriers that Meyer describes in the article.  These barriers can be a lack of support from principals, lack of formal education, inconsistent response from colleagues, fear of backlash from parents and a negative community response.  If the community has an issue with teachers addressing bullying in the classroom, then perhaps what is valued in the community needs to change.  We can not sacrifice the younger generations for fear of what narrow-minded individuals will think.  As teachers, we must be advocates for all students.  These barriers reminded me of the quote by Jasmine Guy.  She said, "I don't much care who is gay or straight or married or not. I mostly notice if they are brave enough to confront bigotry."  From this article, I have the opinion that there are many teachers and administrators that are not brave enough to confront this.

The general question for Meyer's research was why don't teachers intervene consistently when students report biases and/or bullying.  I think the articles does a good job answering this question through the teacher's responses and experiences but there was one thought nagging me throughout the article.  Isn't it our job, duty, and responsibility to automatically do this? If we as teachers place a value on a student's physical well-being, why isn't there an equal value on emotional or mental well-being?  It seems like common sense to me.  While I agree from the reading that teachers that have had proper training are able to address these issues in the classroom, I don't think that is the only criteria in stopping this.  I have always felt that certain people should teach.  I strongly feel that if someone has their own biases towards members of society, they should not be in a classroom.  I am not sure if we need new policies on bullying but I do know that actually enforcing the ones we have would make positive changes.



Here is the link for the Anti-Bullying Resources page on GLSEN.org

http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/antibullying/index.html



Here is a link from a video I found very interesting.  This man's testimonial is very eye opening and thought provoking:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f91_zIaP0Hs