Of course, authorities should prosecute the kids who bullied Jamey Rodemeyer to death. If there were — as reported — a few of them whose abuse was so relentless, who would not stop until this kid’s spirit was broken, then, by all means, the full weight of the law should land on their heads.

If nothing else, and it may indeed accomplish nothing else, it would send a message to every student, to every parent, to every equivocating teacher or principal, that what happened to this kid was wrong — and that the law and this society are not going to look the other way. It is a message that, apparently, still needs to be delivered, understood and absorbed.

Jamey Rodemeyer killed himself Sunday. He was a 14-year-old freshman at Williamsville North High School. Jamey — who identified himself as bisexual — had reportedly been bullied for years about his sexual orientation.

Amherst police are investigating reports that a few kids had targeted Jamey for years. It’s nice to see the authorities take seriously the concept that words — and social media sites — can be used as weapons of emotional destruction. The list of death-by-suicide teens is too long to believe otherwise.

Cyberbullying, taunting and other forms of emotional assault are not as overtly harmful as a punch in the face. But anyone who believes that “sticks and stones may break my bones/But names will never hurt me” has not seen the numbers on teen suicide, particularly among homosexuals. Thirty percent of teens who kill themselves are gay, and — given those families who keep it a secret — the real number is undoubtedly higher.

Judging from reports, the abuse that drove Jamey to suicide fits the state’s cyberbullying law. It’s a crime when someone “repeatedly commits acts which alarm or seriously annoy such other person and which serve no legitimate purpose. . . . [including] by mechanical or electronic means.”

Anyone looking for the law to take its pound of flesh for Jamey’s death will not be satisfied. First offenders likely would not go to jail, particularly if they are minors. But arrest and prosecution would at least send the message that society takes this seriously.

Jamey is the latest in a line of gay teens who saw suicide as the only exit from a barrage of verbal-and cyberassaults. There are plenty of precedents for prosecution.

Six teenagers were charged with harassment and civil rights violations after 15-year-old Phoebe Prince hanged herself last year following months of bullying at her Massachusetts high school. They pleaded guilty to lesser charges. The roommate of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi was prosecuted after the 18- year-old leapt to his death off a bridge. The roommate streamed on the Internet a covertly recorded webcast of Clementi’s sexual encounter with another man.

“If [Jamey] was repeatedly set upon verbally, with no other purpose than to harass and humiliate, . . . then I have no problem prosecuting this,” Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita told me.

Cops obviously can’t slap cuffs on everyone who insults someone. If that were the case, the county would need an airplane hangar to hold all the perpetrators. The First Amendment protects free speech, even when it is insulting or hurtful. And no law can match the outrage people feel when the life of a sweet, vulnerable teen becomes unbearable because kids torment him as if they were pulling the wings off a fly.

But the harassment that drove this teenager to take his life may well have been a crime. Prosecution and punishment will not bring him back. But if it changes even one bully’s mind, then Jamey Rodemeyer did not die in vain.

desmonde@buffnews.comnull