Teenage terrorism. (last word).

As another school year is getting under way, I want to propose a lesson plan for teachers and administrators. It deals with three stories of gender stereotyping against four teenagers. It's also about the five victims who were lost in the wake of those stereotypes. Too often we shrug off stereotypes and name-calling as just another part of growing up. But these stories prove that this can't be further from the truth.

First there is the story of 13-year-old Aaron Vays, which was told in the August 4 Sunday magazine of The New York Times. Aaron, who is straight, moved with his parents from his native Russia to Rockland County, N.Y., so he could better pursue a career in figure skating, a sport at which he is reportedly very, very good.

But once his schoolmates learned that Aaron figure-skated, they tilled his days with taunts and teasing that soon turned into punches, tripping, and finally group beatings. Instead of disciplining the bullies, school officials transferred Aaron to another school.

That didn't help much, of course. Aaron was soon spotted practicing his jumps at the local rink by boys on the ice hockey team. They told him that only sissies, girls, communists, and fags figure-skated. Shortly thereafter, a group of schoolmates beat Aaron so badly that he was hospitalized.

Then there is the the story of Charles "Andy" Williams, which reminds us that there are victims on both sides of stereotypes. Williams was sentenced August 15 to 50 years in prison for a March 2001 school shooting in Santee, Calif., that left two of his schoolmates dead.