I was wandering around on the Internet last week looking for information on anti-bullying legislation in the states. We were getting ready to publish Joan Lisante's story on cyber-bullying and I wanted to see how states were addressing this relatively new problem.

Then, because Google often has the effect of turning the Web into a Maze, I tumbled down an informational rabbit hole and found a fierce pocket of resistance to anti-bullying legislation and programs on the web site of Focus on the Family.

Now, I can understand why a group or a person might be skeptical that legislation is the best way to go about addressing kid-on-kid nastiness. I know I am. But Focus on the Family has a different concern. It perceives anti-bullying efforts as part of a campaign to make it easier for gay and lesbian students to be open about their homosexuality, and perhaps even organize groups such as GSA's on their campuses.

This seems to me like a perfect example of the kind of tunnel vision that prevents us from doing better by our children in all kinds of ways. School communities certainly need to find room for different beliefs and value systems within their student bodies. A student who believes homosexuality is wrong shouldn't be ridiculed. (Though I see no harm in some thoughtful challenging of preconceived notions on that front, seems like that is part of the educational process.)

But doesn't our responsibility to keep children safe in school -- safe from being slammed into lockers, for instance -- come first? Things have gotten better in many schools since I was a teen, but still too many homosexual students are bullied, harrassed and tormented. Too many wind up depressed, scared to go to school, forced to transfer, or even dropping out.