Huntington Beach is looking to put the kibosh on bullying.

City Council members at their meeting on Monday showed support for developing an educational program spearheaded by Councilman Joe Carchio to encourage local students to understand the harm of bullying and make a decision to rise above it.

Carchio said he wants to launch a program he is calling Be a Buddy not a Bully that he hopes will get students excited about the anti-bullying movement.

“I think we need education. I think that is the key to bullying,” Carchio said. “Somewhere along the line the children have to be educated as well as the parents as well as the educators themselves.”

The Huntington Beach Human Relations Task Force put together a report on bullying in Surf City that shows about 30 percent of students are involved in bullying as either the aggressor or the victim, said committee chair Joe Dagley.

“This is consistent with the national average,” he said. “There’s no evidence to suggest the incidence of bullying is any different than other communities.”

Council members in December directed the task force to complete a study on bullying and suggested passing a citywide ordinance that would ban the behavior. The report says the city’s three school districts address bullying as a “serious problem” and all have implemented educational measures of their own to work with students, parents and teachers.

State legislation will go into effect this coming school year that requires schools to take action when bullying is reported.

Seth’s Law, named after 13-year-old Seth Walsh, who committed suicide after being tormented for being gay, would require all school to have procedures in place to deal with bullies and direct policies on how to handle students who are discriminating against gay or lesbian students.

Although some state legislation will make its way to Huntington Beach schools, Dagley said passing a city law would be difficult to enforce because there are currently only two school resource officers for 44 Huntington Beach schools.

“There is a concern that a new ordinance would create a formal expectation that the Huntington Beach Police Department would be forced to investigate all incidents,” Dagley said.

Dagley added the task force would like to start district-wide surveys to assess how Huntington Beach students are affected by bullying, which may help with coming up with a better plan of action.

The task force is also suggesting more awareness events and a citywide reporting system that would allow victims to report the behavior.

Carchio said he is meeting with school officials to work on the Be a Buddy not a Bully program and will bring a proposal back to the council at a later meeting.

Councilman Joe Shaw voiced his support for the program and applauded the task force’s efforts for being the first group in Orange County to take a look at bullying on a city-specific basis.

“I think it’s an important thing and it really hurts a lot of children every year and it can be remedied,” Shaw said.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7953 or jfletcher@ocregister.com