“It Happens Sideways”: Intersectional Inequalities and the Paradox of Anti-Bullying Policy

• In Event: 40409 - The Rules Are Meant to Be Broken: Discipline, Punishment, and Resistance in Childhood and Adolescence

Abstract

Over the past two decades, anti-bullying policies, laws, and programming have exponentially expanded, today touching the lives of most American students. Despite these efforts, national bullying rates have not decreased. Why aren’t these efforts working and what is this “anti-bullying industry” doing for teens? Following youth over two school years, this article draws from 127 interviews, digital ethnography of 75 teens’ social media accounts, analysis of bullying reports, anti-bullying policies and programming, and fieldwork at “Township,” a rural Northeastern high school, to illustrate how intersectional forms of disadvantage and privilege shape who is most likely to need verses benefit from anti-bullying policies. Like youth across the country, nondominant teens experienced the highest rates of bullying at Township. Yet these students were the least likely to name their experiences as “bullying” or report them to school officials. On rare occasions when they did, their reports were not addressed as bullying cases. Meanwhile, it was white, class-privileged, cisgender, heterosexual students who most frequently claimed to be bullied, filed bullying reports, and received administrative support in response. Through this analysis, I explicate the puzzle of how anti-bullying policies which should–at least in theory–protect marginalized students come to largely benefit privileged teens, and their implications on the reproduction of inequality in schools.

Author

• Sarah Miller, Boston University