Bullying bystanders-- ignoring gendered harassment

Mission from the GLSEN website: 

What does GLSEN do?

In support of our overall vision, GLSEN's work can be briefly described in this way:

1. Convince education leaders and policymakers of the urgent need to address anti-LGBT behavior and bias in our schools.
2. Protect students by advancing comprehensive and effective safe schools law and policies.
3. Empower principals to make their schools safe places to learn.
4. Build the skills of educators to teach respect for all people.

From the research article "From Teasing to Torment: School Climate in America - A National Report on School Bullying" on the GLSEN site:  “This study clearly illustrates the prevalence of bullying and harassment in America’s schools and that students who experience harassment are more likely to miss classes which can impact a student’s ability to learn,” said Kevin Jennings, Founder and Executive Director of GLSEN.  

and:

“This survey shows how we need to bridge the gap between the support that teachers say they provide to students and students’ perceptions of teachers’ willingness to take action,” said Jennings. “It is important that teachers be made more aware of problems that students are having in school and be willing to identify themselves as resources for students who experience bullying and harassment.”

The mission of GLSEN, the article above, and the Meyer reading all point a finger at educators, saying not enough is done to prevent bullying of LGBT students in schools.   Her goal is to gain a better understanding of the factors that shape how teachers view and respond to gendered harassment in an effort to work towards solutions.  Barriers to teacher response to gendered harassment can be either external or internal.  Meyer divides external influences into social factors and institutional factors, the latter she further breaks into four categories:  administrative structures and responses, curriculum demands, teacher training (or lack thereof), and written policy.  Social factors are divided into three categories:  perceptions of administration (broken down into leadership style, personal values, professional priorities, and policy implementation), teachers interpersonal relationships with administrators, colleagues, students, and parents, and community values.  Internal influences refer to teacher identity and experiences.   

It took me two trips through the reading and a messy self-produced graphic organizer to align all that.  I couldn't focus as I read.  When I started writing this blog, I didn't know where to begin.  I kept thinking of what Meyer wrote in her introduction on page 2: 

"Students report that teachers stand by and allow 

biased and hurtful behaviors to go unchallenged."

I would say that this makes teachers bystanders to bullying.  In Bully, Bullied, Bystander...and Beyond on tolerance.org, the author writes, "injustice overlooked or ignored becomes a contagion".    
The conclusion I make from all of this is  that not only are many educators not doing their jobs (of educating students in a safe challenging environment), but they are in fact guilty of willingly allowing bullying to occur.  

As I mentioned above, Meyer examines the reasons for teachers' non interventions as they pertain to issues of gendered harassment.  Certainly physical bullying and racial bullying are not tolerated in schools---why the lack of intervention for gendered bullying? 
Teachers don't have the time.
Teachers don't feel they have administrative support.
Teachers don't have the training.  
Maybe teachers themselves use inappropriate language and don't realize it (or are at least desensitized to it).  Not only the ubiquitous "gay", but the blatant "cocksucker".  When you stop and think about that...
Meyer writes on page 15, "school culture is much more likely to determine and support what it is that students, teachers, and others say and do then is the formal management system."
So progress will only be made if motivators start to outweigh the barriers for intervention by individual teachers.    Awareness about how this really affects students is the first step.  

GK