Chapter 6: Middle (Mis)Management: Staff Sanctioned Victimization in the Middle Grades

This chapter is a critical review of literature focusing on the victimization of LGBTQ young adolescents and how this victimization can be staff sanctioned. It weaves the author’s personal narratives into a review of relevant literature and statistics on youth victimization and the effects of victimization in the middle grades. The personal narrative vignettes focus on the author’s experience with staff sanctioned victimization, peer victimization, and the impact of this victimization on the author. I posit that staff play a critical role in the victimization of youth, either directly through bullying students or indirectly through enforcing a hidden curriculum of heteronormativity. The chapter concludes with recommendations that schools can utilize to prevent victimization in the middle grades.