The California Legislature can hopefully make public schools safer for GLBT students by passing AB 606.

In short, the bill, also known as the Safe Place to Learn Act, would require, among other things, that school districts include “sexual orientation” in diversity training for students and teachers. That’s easier said than done, as school districts have resisted doing so because of pressure from the Alliance Defense Fund, which has 800 attorneys threatening school districts with suits for mentioning anything to do with sexual orientation.

In my archives (www.beyond-thebriefs.com) you will find columns I’ve written about schools that have been sued for including sexual orientation in human relations programs. The Grossmont High School District banned a movie that included an openly gay police officer. And a few months ago I reported here how a high school official reprimanded a teacher for acknowledging that domestic violence even occurs in same-sex relationships.

In response to the problem of districts not including sexual orientation in the curriculum, the bill includes a law that allows the state superintendent for public instruction to withhold funds from school district that don’t comply with the state law.

I’ve called for this in this column, but, realistically, there’s never been a case where the federal Department of Education has ever denied federal funds for noncompliance with federal statutes prohibiting gender bias. And I don’t know if school districts would take this seriously. More importantly, an entire school district, students and their parents should not be punished for the politics of a conservative school board.

The bill calls for schools to report and keep accurate stats on hate crimes within the schools, and report them accurately to the state. Unfortunately, schools are notorious for underreporting crimes on campus. I’m being generous. Some say they lie. And that’s because federal law penalizes them for being “dangerous” schools. So we can’t rely upon schools to report the prevalence of hate crimes/incidents on campus.

The bill finally calls for the superintendent for public instruction to establish a complaint procedure whereby students and their parents can complain when schools fail to comply with the anti-bias provisions of state law.

Unfortunately, most harassed kids who are gay don’t want anyone to know or think they are gay. So the complaint is unrealistic. Nor is it fair to expect them to know how to deal with a bureaucratic agency. And then they have to wait 12 months for the superintendent for public instruction to investigate the complaint. By that time, it’s too late. As in the case of Matthew Gilmore, a local teen who committed suicide last year, bullied students don’t have a lot of time.

I commend the backers of AB 606, but it’s too little. Real reform is going to require real action and commitment from school boards, teachers and law enforcement agencies.

Let’s finally do something about the problem of students who suffer from physical and emotional abuse in our public schools. Quite frankly, I’m asking the governor to be the kindergarten cop innocent students desperately need in California.

As I’ve written here in the last few weeks, AB 606 needs several critical provisions. The law must require teachers and all school officials to report hate incidents and crimes (threats of violence) directly to law enforcement. Failure to do so must be a criminal act, the same way the law currently treats the failure to report incidents of physical and sexual abuse of a child.

The law must allow victims of hate crimes to remain anonymous. In short, a “shield” law must protect their identities from others, including their parents. And if the student doesn’t want to press charges, then the school can in its own name.

The law must allow continuously harassed students, and their parents, the option of obtaining funds from the school district so that the child can attend a public or private school that can provide a safe haven.

Ironically, as I wrote here, it was Justice Alito who embraced such an idea, when he wrote approvingly of such a plan involving a harassed gay student in New Jersey. Alito supported using special-education laws to protect harassed GLBT students.

The measures I’ve suggested here will make a difference in the lives of GLBT students. They will accomplish what the measures we’ve advanced for the last decades have been unable to do. When bullies start getting tossed out of school and into the criminal justice system, things will change.