I agree with you that she was genuinely conflicted over how to handle it. But, again, I truly believe that she was hesitant to reprimand Brandon *because* he was Ho-Chunk -- and, in the late-90s, White teachers were struggling with whether it was "politically incorrect" to be too harsh to Students of Color. If it had been another White boy doing the exact same thing to me, I have no doubt that Mrs. Rykken would have spoken up right away and stopped him. So, even if she'd suspected homosexuality or bisexuality in either of us -- I think she still would have gone through the motions of intervening in that scenario, because of the fact that anti-Queer stigmas were so strong in most school districts back then...and she probably would have been skittish about the idea of conservative parents from the community potentially hearing about it and complaining about "lewd conduct" being allowed in the classroom (i.e., gymnasium).