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Outside the brackets: Why school administrators fail to see gendered harassment within an antibullying law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Jeffrey Lane Open the ORCID record for Jeffrey Lane [Opens in a new window] ,
Hana Shepherd Open the ORCID record for Hana Shepherd [Opens in a new window] ,
Holly Avella  and
Aaron Martin
Jeffrey Lane*
Affiliation:
School of Communication & Information, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
Hana Shepherd
Affiliation:
Sociology Department, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
Holly Avella
Affiliation:
School of Communication & Information, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
Aaron Martin
Affiliation:
Sociology Department, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
*
Jeffrey Lane, School of Communication & Information, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA. Email: jeffrey.lane@rutgers.edu
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Abstract

Much of school bullying involves students policing the gender roles and sexuality of other students. The proliferation of antibullying laws presents an opportunity to formally punish and mark gendered harassment as unacceptable. However, when this form of peer policing involves girls, administrators often consider it to fall outside the purview of the law. We use bracketing theory to understand how middle school administrators in New Jersey assess whether student behavior violates a statewide harassment, intimidation, and bullying law. We find that, according to administrators, violations require relational asymmetry between an aggressor and victim: an imbalance of power and disproportionate participation. Administrators rarely see gendered harassment as bullying because of the relational stereotypes they attach to girl students, which often preclude interpretations of relational asymmetry. We discuss how gender beliefs among administrators and “bracketing failures” explain the ways antibullying laws allow hegemonic beliefs about gender and sexuality to remain untroubled.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , June 2023 , pp. 234 - 253
Copyright
Copyright © 2023 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

How to cite this article: Lane, Jeffrey, Hana Shepherd, Holly Avella, and Aaron Martin. 2023. “Outside the Brackets: Why School Administrators Fail to See Gendered Harassment Within an Antibullying Law.” Law & Society Review 57(2): 234–253. https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12652

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