If your child were being bullied, you would agree with this.

Only a temporary solution. Bullies come in all shapes and sizes and exist not only in school, but in the workplace and everywhere else in life. Instead of dodging the problem, schools should establish a program developed around 1990 called "Kickstart". This program gives students the option to learn martial arts instead of take a gym class. George Bush Sr. made a big push for it however the number of schools who picked it up were relatively small. It not only teaches children to defend themselves, it gives them confidence and the smarts to talk themselves out of a conflict, all while providing a great exercise.

Well good luck. Schools are tribes with an established pecking order. That is because we are dealing with humans, my dear readers. You can pass rules, decree all the social engineering you want, ululate, and wring your hands, and you won't change much. If you give the teacher some authority to impose discipline, then lots of bullying goes away. The problem is that we think some legalistic approach is going to solve the problem. History and experience shows that force is necessary to deal with human foibles include bullying. Good luck with your rules. I suppose the court system will get stuck with enforcing this--i.e. the groaning taxpayer.

I've written about bullies before and I personally have zero tolerance for the little miniature sociopaths. However, I think this is going to be extremely hard to enforce. Good luck to them though.

Back when I was a kid, I had a proverbial bull's eye on my back as I got called "Four eyes" and was told that I smelled like fish and my face looked like my butt (this was 6th thru 8th grade, btw). Bullying is still going on and schools really should start doing something about it. Kids who are being picked on should report ANY kind of verbal harassment to the principal.

School is not only a place to teach children the facts, it's also a place that should be used to teach children the proper skills in order to survive in the real world. Teaching children how to behave properly and be polite (something bullies, in my opinion, do not know how to do) is part of that. People who are constantly badgering others often turn out to be bitter people full of self-hatred, etc and the children who contain these feelings and bugger their peers should be taught not to do so. I think that further action should be taken to ensure that our children are safe in the educational atmosphere, and bullies can be very harmful if not only physically but emotionally as well. Children who feel it is necessary to harass their peers should be talked to, it might not just be that the student doesn't like the victim; perhaps it's the bully who doesn't like himself and this issue should be dealt with in an appropriate manner. If a child is ever expected to grow into the professional world, he/she needs to know how to deal with many different types of people and what better place to start than at school?

I really have to laugh at this...as a veteran of the "No Bullying constitution" and all the other assorted crap they give us, it doesn't really help. I mean school rules punish a person for fighting back. One of my best friends got stabbed in the eye with a pencil, by a bully, and when he retaliated(punched the kid) he was suspended too. Anyway to my point... I believe that the bully problem should be handled correctly, but please, let the kids learn more important things than a "No Bullying constitution" it just eats up classtime, and will people who bully really listen to that junk?

This is reflection of the fear of litigation and insurance costs on the part of the school(s), more than anything else.

Yes, kids should learn to stand up for themselves. Yes, this is a complicated issue. No easy answers. Then again, based on the typical bully's parents, well, the parents of most bullies would get their asses whipped in Trivial Pursuit by Australopithecus Afarensis in about 5 minutes flat...maybe there's someway of bringing them to abject ridicule on Parents Night?

. . .because idiot parents alibied and lied for their kids that were actually doing the bullying. . .hey folks, no one's causing the damage to kids except what you see in the mirror. . .get over your problems with 'institutions' and accept some responsibility. . .

As someone who was raised in a very lower class community where a lot of kids were abused or neglected at home, or had other troubles, I had a very hard time getting home each day without getting into a fight. You just had to look at some kids the wrong way. Yeah, maybe it helped build character, but really, let me worry about building my own kids' character, and just keep your bullying kid away from mine thank you very much. Nobody seems to be worried about developing the character of the bullies themselves. Why all this concern for the character of the smaller, more vulnerable kids who just want to go to school to learn? Sorry, but no sympathy for the whining about changes in expectations and rules - did the rules previously allow for bullying, or are schools simply becoming more proactive? If you can't control your kid, that's not my problem, nor should it be my child's. I'm glad these rules are being enforced. I wish they had been when I was a kid.

Here we go again...time to mollycoddle the kiddies again. Little Johnney stole your lunch money, so now your gonna go crying to the newly appointed gripe beagle to sort it out for you. When I went to school there was only one bully per fifty students. Pretty sad odds for the bully when we finally had enough. Teach the kids to stand up for themselves or America's newest generation will be nothing but tomorrow's petulant douchbags to the rest of the confident world.

Having some trouble seeing the perceived problem with this.

You make it sound as if it's a bad thing to protect them while at school. If parents (in general) spent more time teaching their kids right from wrong; this might not be such a huge issue. Some of these parents shouldn't have been allowed to breed, but I'm not allowed to decide the uses of their reproductive organs, so I can't stop them. I think these rules are in place to maintain a safe environment; if kids wouldn't bully others, they wouldn't have to worry about the punishments that their school is willing to pass out.

Not a bad idea. If we could teach people a little better earlier we could cut down on the problems these little assholes cause later.

It is scary sending a child to school anymore. we live in a big city. Being a parent who knows what it is like to have a son with a developmental disability who risks being bullied everyday just because he is considered a little "different" {and it takes very little to be dubbed different by students} I appreciate the strict rules that protect students. It would be nice if all parents taught their kids to respect others and not bully. but there are some parents who cannot be bothered. it is like big deal so what? and for some parents even though they would not admit it as long as it is NOT THEIR KID being picked on they turn away and do not care. All I ever wanted is for my kids to go to school and feel safe so they can get an education without being harassed by some bully who more than likely has a parent who will do nothing to stop it.

Good.Maybe they are trying to prevent another shooting incident.Kids are in school to learn,not to get picked on.Such behavior is very detrimental to the learning process.Don't worry,life will provide them with ample opportunity to learn to "deal with" bullies outside of our schools.

All im reading here is all taken with an open mind. My problem with this is that once again, it is taking the responsibility away from PARENTS. Yes kids are 'crazy' compared to a while back. You still have to teach a person to deal with it. In my experience all a school will do is overcompensate and the next thing you know you get a call to come pick up your kid for a push in the hallway. We all want to think that they are protecting our kids...fooey. Parents should protect their kids by talking to them. Communicating exactly how to deal with a bully. My son has dealt with this quite a bit being "skinny" and wearing glasses. You know how kids are. I dont expect "the school" to make good decisions about most things these days! My kids know that they are still bound by my rules. If the school calls it wrong, then my kids will take thier licks knowing that I will not chastise them if they went by my rules. My kids go to school to learn academics. I dont demand that they are bound to their politics. They are taught to comply when they are there under all circumstances, its also not their job to question policies, Thats MY job. The problem here is how "acceptable" is is now to blindly "trust" anyone who has their eye on your kid when he leaves your home. Something else that could be done with a lot more peace of mind in my day, not now.

Underspin makes some good points here. Going after the concept of bullying in and of itself is somewhat analogous to starting a war on terrorism or on drugs--the aim gets so broad that it becomes difficult to establish goals. Don't go after the motive; go after the result of the action. In this case, school authorities have to make it very clear that intimidation and violence are absolutely not permitted, both on campus and in real life. The bottom line is that it would be best to establish such boundaries early on. Bullying behavior is the real world would get you in trouble at work, at home, and in any other aspect of life. Take care of the problem by tackling the bad behavior.

No, one doesn't want to altogether insulate kids and adolescents so much from reality that they cannot fend for themselves later in life, yet in stating this, when the process of learning and scholarly focus becomes nearly impossible due to consistent threats, intimidation or actual violence against certain students during school hours, something must be done. Put into direct action, stricter detailed guidelines/rules about this might also help the actual tormentors themselves later on in life. It might help teach them a valuable lesson in accountability, as there are typically serious social, legal, economic and personal consequences to such behavior, for it is neither accepted nor tolerated in most every other area of adult life.

....And we don't want schools protecting our children from fat stupid bullies, who have nothing better to do with their time than push around smaller kids at school because they don't get the proper guidance at home from their alcoholic and/or neglectful parents now do we? No, I don't condone that children be completely sheltered from uncomfortable social situations, as some things they are going to have to learn to confront and work out for themselves, but there are alot of rotten little bastards out there that have been turned into mini-Hitlers through mass medication and a mindless culture of junk that embraces violence over reason, that, in many cases, has been allowed to fill the parental void. But from the time a child arrives at school, until the time they come home, they are essentially Wards of the State and schools must put the interests of children who are there to learn first, over those who are there to achieve whatever status, validity and power that they have been stripped of at home. Anyone who hasn't been in a coma for the past 20 years could also tell you that kids are growing increasingly bolder and more violent with each new school year. Tough decisions must be made regarding bullies, and I fully support whatever measures schools take to crack down on these menaces.