Almost one in five male community college students studied said they've physically assaulted or threatened someone they thought was a lesbian or gay man, forensic psychologist Karen Franklin told the American Psychological Association (APA) Sunday.

Among both male and female students, one in 10 admitted to assaulting or threatening someone they thought was a lesbian or gay man. Franklin interviewed almost 500 San Francisco-area students.

Her study, endorsed in a new APA paper on hate crimes, calls for "a national policy of pro-active intervention against school-based harassment and violence."

The national Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) reported in September 1997 that among 130 school districts it had studied, 36% -- more than one in three -- denied students any protection against discrimination or harassment on the basis of their sexual orientation and/or identity.

Updated GLSEN statistics on school protections are to be released September 10 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

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