Examining High School Administrators’ Responses to Sexual Violence

• In Event: Sociology of Education Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 29. Gender, Schooling, and Society pt. 1

Abstract

How do high school administrators respond to sexual harassment and gender-based violence? Drawing on three years of ethnographic research in a large public high school in suburban California, this project provides rare insight into how K-12 educators navigate instances of sexual and gender-based misconduct. We draw on observational data from two years of weekly meetings wherein a team of administrators and counselors debate how to respond to “students of concern” to analyze each instance that involved sexual or gender-based misconduct. Our preliminary analyses suggest that school staff experience tension in aligning (a) their desire to reduce their use of exclusionary discipline like suspensions and expulsions; (b) community calls for accountability inspired by the #MeToo movement; and (c) their legal obligations under Title IX and as mandated reporters. We find that overworked school staff navigate these tensions by framing students who report SGBM as fragile or unsteady. At the same time, they construct rationales that excuse the students who (allegedly) enacted harm, framing them as just kids, upstanding citizens, vulnerable, or disengaged. Each of these frames reflects administrators’ skepticism that children would purposefully cause harm. This skepticism means that students who inflicted harm were given the benefit of the doubt and administrators explain away their purported behavior by relying on factors such as their age, disability status, and experiences with mental health. Overall, this minimizes reporting students’ accounts of sexual violence, reduces the strain of following formal investigation procedures, and seeks to deflect potential blame that could result from their handling of sexual violence cases.

Authors

• Rebecca Gleit, Skidmore College

• Tivona Hilbig-Bokaer

• Sela Safo, Skidmore College