KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – He was just 12 years old when the taunts began. Though straight, his classmates called him gay and teased the girls who befriended him.

His parents talked to officials in the Tonganoxie, Kan., school district, but the taunts continued until their son dropped out of high school last fall at the age of 16 and earned his GED.

In years past, that might have been the end of the story. But education groups say parents are increasingly taking school officials to court for failure to stop other youngsters from taunting and bullying their children.

That’s what the Tonganoxie teen’s parents did earlier this month when they sued school and district officials. The suit alleges the school enforced its sexual harassment policy when it involved male students harassing female students but did nothing when classmates began calling the boy “jack-off-kid” and “masturbator boy.”

The family, who asked that their name not be disclosed, is seeking unspecified damages. The suit alleges that before their son dropped out of school, his grades began to suffer and his family doctor prescribed anti-depressant medication and recommended counseling.

“I called everyone I thought could help me, and I just couldn’t get it stopped,” said the father of the 6-foot tall, 190-pound, second-degree black belt. “It’s like my son didn’t matter.”

Messages left by The Associated Press for the school district’s attorney, Steven Pigg, were not returned.

Though it’s hard to quantify the prevalence of such suits – a spokesman for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America said they aren’t tracked – some say this type of litigation appears to be on the rise.

The Anchorage School District settled a lawsuit out of court earlier this year with a family that said their 14-year-old son tried to kill himself and was left permanently brain-damaged because of relentless bullying that school staffers knew about but didn’t stop.

In January, the Eugene, Ore., School District agreed to pay $10,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a boy who was bullied and later attacked on a school bus. Local and national news programs aired footage of the October 2002 attack, which was taped on a bus camera.

Similar lawsuits also have been filed in Canada, Australia and England.

“I wish school systems would protect students from harassment and bullying because it is the right thing to do. But if they are doing it because they are afraid of being hit with lawsuits, bring on the lawsuits,” said Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a New York based advocacy group.

He said many of the taunts directed at bullied students are because they are perceived, correctly or incorrectly, as gay. Jennings said he was beaten so badly in high school that he lost a front tooth and had his hand broken. For years, he said the anti-gay abuse was tolerated. But he said a 1996 court ruling changed that.

Nabozny v. Podlesny was the first federal trial of a school district accused of failing to protect a gay student from harassment. As a result of the litigation, Jamie Nabozny, a gay student, won a $900,000 settlement against a Wisconsin school district for not protecting him from harassment.

“I think there is a growing sense that this treatment is wrong and they don’t have to take it, and we are seeing a lot more people turn to the courts when school districts don’t provide a safe environment,” he said.

Joan Duffell, director of community education for the Seattle, Wash.-based nonprofit group Committee for Children, said there’s no reason to believe bullying is more prevalent than it was in decades past. But she said parents are more aware that it is a significant problem and aren’t willing to put up with it.

Duffell said a growing body of research highlights the long-term negative effects of bullying, which can range from diminished self-esteem to declining grades and depression.

“When our parents were raising us, they thought it was a childhood right of passage,” she said. “Current studies show bullying can be damaging psychologically.”

The fact that several of the students who opened fire on their classmates in the last decade were bullied has also drawn attention to the subject, she said.

Lisa Soronen, a National School Board Association staff attorney, suggested the increased attention sexual harassment in the workplace has received also may have made parents less likely to put up with the taunts directed at their children – particularly those of a sexual nature.

“After the sexual harassment debate,” she said, “we decided kids shouldn’t have to tolerate nasty behavior.”