I believe there is a distinction between "bullying" and "harassment".

Everyone gets bullied. I do think that living through confrontation is part of growing up and understanding how to effectively avoid/solve confrontations without resorting to violence is something that simply needs to be learned.

School systems of course do not have that luxury and the line between "bullying" and "harassment" can be very very blurry. Policy can be a double-edged sword. When used correctly it effectively solves a problem. When applied incorrectly you are suspending kids for minor infractions and you end up as some laughable news-target on Drudge Report.

I guess my point is that we as people on the ground need to vigilant and be able to recognize when bullying goes to far. If we do our best to help our kids learn to avoid violent confrontation and deal with bullies in healthy ways then the policy only need come out in the most extreme circumstances.

Does the policy cover noogies, red bellies, Indian burns, purple nurples and wedgies? I heard about a boy in California who died from an atomic wedgie.

I agree 1000% with James from Hampden. It's all about educating children with Moral Intelligence, especially Empathy. This should be woven into the standard curriculum in the classroom a little each week. Some schools have time set aside to read, can schools set aside time to learn social skills? Like Empathy, and other moral intelligences? Prevention is key.

The idea of letting kids letting kids work things out unless they go "too far" (to paraphrase "James from Hampden") makes me more then a little nervous. How far is too far not only varies with the observer, but varies with the kid who's getting bullied. Constant cruel comments might be totally ignored by one kid and drive a second kid to ulcers and emotional shut down. I'd really like to advise the teachers and administrators to listen to the parents (assuming they are involved) and the kids and take their comments seriously.

From personal experience I can tell you about rolled eyes and poo-pooing when I told how verbal abuse was totally killing the joy and self-confidence that my kid had. With those reactions you can guess how effective any discipline was with the bullies. I saw no choice but to find a different school and really it could have been dealt with quickly and with much less damage to my kid if there wasn't a sense that kids need to toughen up, suck it up and learn to deal with a-holes. My experience is at the elementary level, but I really think there are some universal rules we could develop. Not blaming the victim and not thinking that all parents are idiots would be a good starting point for me.