Union-Tribune reporter Lionel Sanchez wrote recently that the Grossmont Union High School District is getting tough with gangs following the arrest of six Santee residents – including three students – on hate crime charges. Those arrested are members of white supremacist organizations. They were booked on suspicion of stalking as a hate crime against African-Americans and Asians.

Two of the students arrested went to Chaparral High, an alternative school in El Cajon, and the other attended West Hills High in Santee.

Detective Sgt. Russ Moore said the six who were arrested were seen wearing what has become the official uniform of the American skinhead: dark Doc Marten boots with white laces, dark pants and black nylon bomber-style jackets with swastikas and Nazi emblems.

Moore advised parents to check their children’s rooms at home and look for gang colors or gang insignia on their clothing as they leave for school.

“If your kid has swastikas and Nazi flags, that’s a red flag,” he said.

Superintendent Terry Ryan said, “We have zero tolerance for hate and anything based on religion or race. It will not be tolerated.”

Was leaving out sexual orientation a mere slip? Ryan recently reprimanded a teacher for merely confirming to a student that couples in same-sex relationships experience domestic abuse similar to their heterosexual counterparts.

A few years ago, Grossmont High forced the Anti-Defamation League to remove references to a gay police officer from its program on tolerance. And, even though Ryan allowed The Laramie Project to be performed, he insisted on changes to the script.

Grossmont High officials seem to have zero tolerance for anything that seeks to protect GLBT students and staff from abuse.

I’m not sure that all the fuss Ryan is making about white supremacist gangs in East County is all that genuine. I mean, this has gone on for years.

“The gang problem in East County is serious,” Supervisor Diane Jacob told the U-T. “That’s why there is a focused effort to send a strong message: Gangs are not welcome in East County, period,” Jacob said.

Ryan added, “White supremacist is a gang just like Bloods and Crips and other gangs; it’s not acceptable.”

But the presence of white supremacists in their (red) neck of the woods has been apparent to everyone for years. Capt. Al Guerin said that white gangs are more common in places such as Santee and Lakeside. In areas such as Lemon Grove and Spring Valley, gang members are more likely to be Latino and African-American.

East County has produced virtually all of the perpetrators of hate crimes in San Diego. Skinheads from Santee (also known as “Klantee”) have terrorized Hillcrest forever.

But perhaps the increase in attention to white gangs is because East County police can hardly target Latino, Asian and African-American gangs while looking the other way when white gangs are acting badly.

Regardless of the reasons, we should take this as an opportunity to encourage Ryan and school officials to provide training to teachers and administrators at four district schools on ways to detect white supremacist activity.

On a larger scale, the governor and District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis should use these arrests as a reason to sponsor a law that requires all school personnel receive training, and not just on white supremacy, but also on hate crimes. Just as they must do with conventional child abuse, the law should require teachers to report hate crimes and incidents directly to law enforcement.

Currently, school officials only have to report students who bring weapons and drugs to school. That’s got to change. Hate crimes are felonies, too, and they do far more damage than a marijuana cigarette.

An audit from the hate crime reporting law showed that schools not only underreport, most teachers don’t even know what a hate crime is.

As for private suits to enforce the law, local trial lawyers Paula Rosenstein and Brigit Wilson informed me that, even though they spent six weeks in trial convincing a San Diego jury that a local school acted “deliberately indifferent” to hate crimes against two students, the school has appealed, racking up in legal bills what will be about $500,000 to reverse a $300,000 verdict.