In Western culture, public schools institutionalize practices of heterosexism, sexism, and homophobia. While schools are often positioned as institutions that work to eradicate various forms of inequality, they often perpetuate sexual inequality through formal and informal institutional practices. Public schools have often been studied as gendered environments, but they have less often been regarded as sexual institutions (especially in the primary grades). Sexual knowledges, practices, and identities are produced and regulated by [Page 1079]schools through formal and informal pedagogical practices, school disciplinary codes, school rituals, and the rights afforded students.