Bullying permeates U.S. schools. Students who are bullied because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender expression report high rates of suicide (Kosciw, 2009). To address the problem, several states have enacted antibullying legislation. However, the violent deaths of several young males in public school make it apparent that these laws are not successful at ceasing homophobic bullying. Agreeing that such laws are currently and desperately needed, I also suggest there is a need to search for other ways of responding to the problem. One means of looking at the situation differently is to analyze our current antibullying laws using post-structural ethics (Braidotti, 2006; Bauman, 1993; Caputo, 1993; Deleuze & Guattari, 1980/1987). In this paper, I analyze antibullying legislation in the State of Georgia, where 11-year-old Jaheem Herrera's 2009 suicide has been attributed to homophobic bullying.
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