Editorial:

Let’s hope that Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials have had enough time to reflect on an extreme case of cyber bullying earlier this year involving five students.

And to chalk it up as a lesson learned.

Actually, cyber bullying is an understatement. As the victim’s mother pointed out, this case is so outrageous that it goes beyond bullying.

Four varsity athletes at Corona del Mar High School threatened to rape and kill fellow student Hail Ketchum in the back of a pickup truck.

Their threats were posted on the Facebook page belonging to one of the athletes.

The incident caught the eye of U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Lakewood), who brought it up during a congressional hearing on the proposed Cyberbullying Prevention Act. A House Judiciary subcommittee is now grappling with a cyber bullying prevention bill that would give law enforcement officials more power to go after overly aggressive Internet users.

“This story isn’t just a hypothetical. It happened to a brave young woman named Hail Ketchum ... who lives in Southern California, near my congressional district,” Sanchez said. “And similar bullying incidents are happening every day to young people across our nation.”

So how did the school district respond? The student athletes were suspended and forced to go through sensitivity training.

But that’s just not enough, especially because the district has a zero-tolerance policy on bullying.

It’s our view that these students — athletes or not — should have been expelled.

There’s simply no place for such behavior in our community.

Furthermore, Hail Ketchum should not have had to attend school with the people who threatened her in such a violent manner.

Merely suspending these aggressors sends a message to all students in the district that officials tolerate violent speech.

Regardless of whether such threats occur on or off campus, stiff penalties should ensue in the aftermath of hateful behavior.

Hail Ketchum and her parents, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Orange County Equality Coalition, sued the school district earlier this year, alleging that school officials did little to stop the athletes from harassing Hail Ketchum with homophobic and sexist taunts.

The district provided a written apology to Hail Ketchum as part of a legal settlement reached last week.

That’s a start. Now the district should close the loop and pledge a no-tolerance policy on despicable acts on the Internet.