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UPPER PENINSULA -- Bullying can be anything from pushing and shoving to name calling and harassment.  It's defined as the act of treating someone abusively.

Marquette-Alger RESA school administrators want to stop it before it ever gets to that point.

As part of an overall state health model, students learn awareness from an early age.

"It teaches kids to identify when they are being bullied, ask for help, and then helping others," says MARESA comprehensive health coordinator Charles Yeager.  "Probably the biggest thing that I've seen in working with schools is kids that are being bullied, unless they have the skills to step in and stop the bullying, will allow it to continue."

On our Facebook page, parents expressed concern about what age bullying begins.

Amber Lemay told us, "My daughter is six and is in kindergarten.  She worries everyday about someone making fun of her!"

And Andrew Heikkinen wrote, "I have a six-year-old son in first grade, and already he won't wear certain clothes for fear of being made fun of."

According to several school administrators, there are no exceptions.

"We don't tolerate any aggressive or disruptive behavior," says Father Marquette principal Jackie Wright.  "That's not to say it doesn't happen, but we go along with the code of conduct, and it is a step-by-step procedure."

In dealing with mostly younger kids, Father Marquette has high behavior expectations for its students.  There are consequences for each level and offense of bullying, resulting in expulsion if necessary.

"Someone has mentioned to me that, does that happen at the Catholic School?  I said of course, we have children here and children do tease each other, they do things that they regret and that they hopefully will make sure it doesn't happen again," Wright adds.

So who's responsible for regulating and monitoring it?  The administrators I spoke with say it's up to the parents and the teachers.

I talked to some other school districts in the U.P. to see how they deal with bullying.

Superintendent Scott McLure in Iron Mountain told me when it comes to incidents of bullying, the school district tries to be consistent with discipline at each level.  They also tell parents exactly what the expectations are.

Superintendent Bill Polkinghorne in Houghton says his district has been ahead of the game for decades at all grade levels.  He added that fighting bullying is a never-ending war.