If a bill before the state's General Assembly passes, school districts statewide will adopt policies prohibiting bullying, intimidation and harassment.

Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head Island, one of the bill's sponsors, said the legislation is intended to "give schools all the horsepower they need to keep things safe."

The bill would expand the state's Safe School's Act of 1990, which currently sets penalties for buying and dealing drugs at school, carrying weapons or threatening school personnel.

It would require each district to develop its own policy with input from a team of parents, school employees, volunteers, students, administrators and community members. Policies must define inappropriate behavior, prohibit it, lay out rules for reporting violations and clearly state consequences for them.

"There is nothing in law or regulation now that requires districts to have a policy regarding bullying," said Carolyn Donges, interim director of safe schools and youth services for the state Department of Education. However, she said many of the state's 85 districts have such rules in place.

John Williams, spokesman for the Beaufort County School District, said the district's "Code of Student Conduct" includes a section prohibiting "threats, harassment, hazing or intimidation."

The code states that consequences for such behavior can include a conference with a student's parents, notifying law enforcement or other disciplinary actions that administrators deem appropriate.

Cynthia Hayes, the district's assistant superintendent for student services, said most bullying incidents are "resolved at the school level," so the there are no districtwide statistics available about bullying.

Hayes said some aspects of the proposed legislation could be helpful to the district. It would be useful, she said, to work with a team to define behaviors that should be considered bullying for children in different age groups.

In addition to defining bullying and laying out consequences, the bill also encourages districts to establish bullying prevention programs that include students, school staff, administrators, volunteers, parents, law enforcement and community members.

The legislation also would require information about a school's bullying prevention program and the number of reported bullying incidents to be included on a school's annual report card. Report cards, a requirement of the state's 1998 Education Accountability Act, include information about a school's overall performance and are distributed to parents each fall.

Hayes said current bullying prevention efforts are coordinated at the school level, not the district level.

Richardson said he's aware many school districts have policies about bullying in place, but this proposal is the legislature's way of saying, "We're not going to put up with this foolishness anymore.

"We're trying to let the good kids be in control instead of the bad kids."