Anti-bullying disciplinary policies in public schools will do nothing to help kids who get bullied. The California Department of Education has been in the process of drafting such polices since funding for them was signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis in 2003.

Legislation for similar laws is currently being considered in the United States House of Representatives.

I got teased as a child in my pre-high school years and I can assure you that tougher consequences for bullies will be useless to similar kids today. In school, most teasing happened under adults& radar screen.

For any anti-bullying laws to be executed, I would have had to report the teasing to adults, which would have been social suicide. I knew there were repercussions for bullies, but to use them would have hastened my real problem: having no friends and projecting vulnerability.

Becoming a kid who was marked off limits for teasing by the school was hardly going to give me a better social life. I had to learn to stand up for myself and learn how to make friends.

Bullies don&t like to tease kids who have backup, and picking on those who stand up for themselves is too much of a hassle. I remember being approached by a guy who had loved to tease me in the past and seemed to be in the mood again at the beginning of my freshman year in high school.

&Hi Andrew, hi,& he kept slowly repeating with an evil smile.

But instead of cowering, I acted oblivious to his tone and responded as if he was genuinely trying to say hello.

&Hey, how was your summer?& I asked.

He seemed befuddled but kept at it.

&Andrew & hi,& he said again.

&Hi, good to see you too,& I said in a sarcastically repetitive tone. &What&s up?&

Then he just walked away deflated. I ended up having a great four years in high school and was friends with many of the kids who had teased me in the past.

If anyone working for California Department of Education reads The State Hornet, take advice from a formerly bullied columnist: There are two kinds of bullying 8211; violent and verbal.

Obviously, violent bullies need to be aggressively punished for school safety reasons. But get creative when dealing with verbal bullying. Train school counselors to coach bullied students in taking a proactive approach to their situations. They&ll be learning how to fight their own battles, a vital skill in life.

I made a lot of friends in high school because of my parents forcing me to get involved in extracurricular activities. Such activities are the easiest way for a shy kid to interact with potential friends.

The California Department of Education should urge counselors to aid bullied students in finding extracurricular activities that suit their interests. These can be directly in the schools or out in the community.

Bottom line: Teachers and administrators will never see most of the bullying in schools and most of the bullied students will never report it to them. Give students the tools to solve the problem on their own. Then get out of their way.