A zero tolerance for bullying will never result in zero bullying. As long as there are children who are different in some way, they will be subject to the abuse of those who find themselves in the position to do so.
The public schools throw together a diverse group of people, whose only other connection sometimes is that they happen to live within the boundaries of that school.
Sometimes that doesn't even mean that they live in geographically contiguous areas, such as students from Topaz Ranch Estates, who attend Minden Elementary School, for an example.
Further complicating the issue are the wide range of ages of children attending elementary school.
Douglas County has established policies and programs for limiting the amount of bullying at school, but no amount of watchfulness will eliminate it.
But we do not believe that Douglas County's schools are any better or worse than any other school in the state when it comes to bullying.
If there is one thing that programs on bullying show, it's that no place is immune.
We expect our school officials to work with parents of children who have been bullied and those who are doing the bullying to make certain the lesson that being a bully is not OK gets through to the children.
