CARLSBAD —— Dozens of parents and their children attended a Carlsbad Unified School District board meeting Wednesday to voice their support for an strong anti-bullying policy.

The board was scheduled to review a first draft of an anti-bullying policy.

The district's proposed policy, which will be voted on at another meeting, is dubbed Bullying Prevention and includes a broad description on bullying: hitting, shoving, verbal assaults, name-calling, social isolation, or manipulation. Bullies would be subject to disciplinary action "up to and including expulsion."

The district already has rules to protect students from being threatened or injured, but it does not have anything on the books against bullying.

Parents interviewed earlier this week deemed the proposed policy too broad and without strict consequences for students who harass and intimidate classmates.

Eleven-year-old Nick Cohen, who came to the meeting prepared to read a letter to the board, said he is picked on every day by the same group of students. It makes him dislike going to school, he said.

"I beg my mom not to take me to school," the Calavera Hills Elementary fifth-grader said. "I go there and I could be in a great mood, and then they tear me down."

Cohen said he wants rules in place that will "scare" bullies from thriving.

The district's proposal does not call for automatic suspensions or expulsions of bullies —— a zero tolerance approach that many parents said they favor.

Cohen and many others who went to the meeting ready to address the school board did not get to speak before press time. Board members spent most of the evening discussing new school boundaries.

Troy Gilman, who also planned to talk to the board, said that his son Matthew, who committed suicide in January, was bullied for two years while attending Calavera Hills elementary and middle schools.

Gilman said he also wants a strict policy in place, and that the current draft "needs work."

He said he is concerned for students like Cohen.

"He's a brave young man (to speak to the board)," Gilman said. "What he's enduring is similar to what my son endured. … We need a strong anti-bully policy in Carlsbad schools."

Under the proposal, local schools would investigate reports of bullying and punishments would be up to the principals. If the parents of a bullied child weren't happy with the punishment, they would be able to meet with the principal to talk about their concerns, the draft states.

Other parents interviewed said that contacting principals rarely takes care of bullies because those students typically wait until the adults go away to harass and threaten other children. And sometimes contacting administrators makes things worse for the victims, parents said.

Most school districts have anti-bullying rules and campaigns in place. The neighboring Oceanside Unified district has a strict "zero-tolerance rule," meaning that if a student on any campus is caught threatening or bullying another student, then he or she faces suspension or expulsion from school.

Other parents, interviewed earlier this week, said Carlsbad's proposal leaves too much discretion in how to handle bullies to the individual schools. Giving schools so much individual freedom would mean one school could enforce the code more strictly than another, they said.

The district will be scheduled to approve the policy at a later meeting. It was unclear Wednesday night whether board members would request that changes be made to the current draft to strengthen the proposed rule against bullying.

Contact staff writer Louise Esola at (760) 901-4151 or lesola@nctimes.com.