A few months ago a 12-year-old boy at a Carlsbad middle school committed suicide by hanging himself in his bedroom. His suicide note, as interpreted by his parents, indicated that going to school was a living hell for him. His peers repeatedly harassed him in virtually every way possible because he was a “sweet and sensitive boy.” (Readers of this column don’t need a forensic psychologist to figure out why he was being harassed.)

Unlike Andy Williams, who was also about the same age, Troy Gilman didn’t bring a gun to school and gun down students at random. Perhaps if he did, we would have known about his death (in January) long before now.

Gilman’s parents want school officials in Carlsbad to enact a zero-tolerance policy for bullying. The religious right argues against even that small gesture, because anything to do with respecting differences in students is somehow “advancing the homosexual agenda.”

Meanwhile, last week two former students from Poway High School told a San Diego Superior Court jury that they were harassed each day while at Poway High.

School officials claim they didn’t act indifferent to the claims. After all, they provided an escort for one student, and they gave the other student a special schedule so he would not have to see his harassers.

It’s been almost five years since the passage of a comprehensive state law protecting gays and lesbians from violence and other forms of harassment in schools.

School officials here and elsewhere believe that they are “off the hook” if they “do something” in response to the claims of harassment.

In fact, currently before the California Supreme Court, the Los Angeles Unified School District is asking the court to impose responsibility on districts only when they act “totally indifferent” to student and teacher complaints of harassment.

Worse, courts have said “that’s enough.” After all, school officials can’t insure the safety of teachers and students.

In other cases, like Poway High, school officials at least have tried to do more than just give lip service to abuse. And probably under the “totally indifferent” standard, they may pass muster. However, “total indifference” is not the standard. Rather, schools must do what is reasonable under the circumstances.

What should schools do?

First, get rid of the abusers. Warn them first, then suspend them, and then expel them.

Second, report abusers to the district attorney for prosecution for “hate crimes” and/or “child abuse.”

Third, the district attorney should get bullies “into the system.” This means charge the bullies and their parents with child abuse or aiding and abetting child abuse. That should get their attention.

Bulling and gay bashing in our schools is not a school issue; it’s a law enforcement issue. Once law enforcement takes over, judges can force bullies and their families into counseling, where trained specialists can get at the root of the problem. If the behavior doesn’t change, then punitive measures are available.

School officials are not police officers, nor do they want to be.

And their ineffectiveness at dealing with this shows up in the suicide of Troy Gilman, the continual “Columbine-like” conduct at schools by “bullied students” and the enormous civil judgments against school districts.

I don’t blame the teachers or the school officials. I blame the bullies and their parents. I also blame bigots who view anti-bullying policies as somehow supporting gay rights. It’s really like saying teaching the Holocaust in school is a recruitment tool for Jews.

Therein lies the problem for school officials. If they do take reasonable steps to rid a school of harassers, they get pressure from the right wing. Not only did Tyler Harper complain, he sued. Recently Poway High canceled a dance team performance at Youth Pride when local anti-gay gadfly James Hartline protested.

This just shows the pressure schools are under. It doesn’t excuse their actions. But, politically, school officials are keenly aware that the right can recall school board members. Then a new regime can fire school officials and replace them with their own stooges. Grossmont High School District is an example.

So merely passing laws and policies is useless without enforcement. We also need to notify our statewide and local officials – almost all of whom gladly take our campaign money – that we want law enforcers to prosecute bullies, and, unless they do so, the spigot will be dry when they seek our funds.