A s the Los Angeles Times reported last week, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney stands accused of committing a hate crime (murder) in connection with killing 15-year old Lawrence King.

King, a foster child at Casa Pacifica, a shelter for abused and troubled children in Camarillo, Calif., who attended a junior high school in Oxnard, Calif., had taken to wearing makeup and jewelry to school, and had declared himself “gay,” prompting other students to harass him.

Under California law, prosecutors have discretion to charge a juvenile (charged with crimes such as murder) as an adult, and they have done so with McInerney, whom they charged with premeditated murder.

If convicted, McInerney could face 50 years to life in prison. Prosecutors added the hate crime charge because they allege McInerney killed King because of King’s stated sexual orientation. The charge could add another one to three years to McInerney’s sentence.

This case is a textbook example of why hate crimes and hate incidents in schools need to be reported to law enforcement, just as any other type of child abuse would be.

As the case illustrates, hate incidents, such as McInerney’s harrassment of King, often escalate into much more serious crimes, such as murder. Indeed, school officials report that King and McInerney, received counseling to address the bullying just days before the killing.

We also know that, statistically, teens who engage in bullying are far more likely to come from homes in which domestic violence and abuse are the norm. McInerney’s father had been convicted of domestic violence and served jail time.

Both of these facts, had they known of them, would have been red flags to child protection officials, who have the power to remove bullies such as McInerney from their homes and can also require the family to get counseling.

But the school did not alert child protection officials.

Why not? Because school officials are not required to report bullying and/or hate incidents

And they don’t want to. Rather, they want school psychologists and counselors to handle such matters internally. They don’t want a child to enter the criminal justice system simply for calling a peer “dyke” or “fag.”

I agree. But there’s a difference between mild, moderate, and serious hate incidents: What’s mild bullying one day may become murder the next.

Our Democratically controlled Legislature will not enact any law that teachers (unions) oppose, and Republican legislators (baited by the extreme right wing) will thwart any meaningful effort to stop violence against GLBT teens and children.

Consequently, it’s readily apparent that we have to make all candidates for legislative and executive posts pledge to vote for a “Students Bill of Rights,” that grants all California students the following protections:

1. California must provide a safe place to learn for students who suffer from bullying because of any characteristic they possess that is protected by law. (For example, under California law it is a hate crime to physically attack a person or property because of the victim’s sexual orientation.) If a school district cannot provide a safe place to learn on a campus, then it must pay for schooling elsewhere. That’s the law in New Jersey.

2. Upon notice of bullying of students, schools must report the incidents to child protective agencies. Failing to report will result in criminal charges. This is the same law in place now with regard to other forms of child abuse.

3. The state needs to maintain a Web site and phone line where students experiencing physical or verbal abuse can report the matter, anonymously if need be and, of course, confidentially.

4. The Attorney General’s Office for Civil Rights must investigate complaints and hold school district officials accountable if they have failed to provide support.

In the last 10 years, we have managed to get a host of laws through the Legislature dealing with non-discrimination policies and training programs for teachers, etc. There’s little political will to do more than this, and there’s hardly any will to carry these things out.

But perhaps we’ve reached a point where we all can come together and agree that no child should have to suffer abuse in a school.

Because the child who, on Monday, wears a T-shirt mocking gay students based on religious reasons could be the same child who, on Tuesday, shoots a gay or transgender teen in the head ? for “religious reasons” of course.