The Albert Lea School District and its school board has set goals it calls “aims.” The first aim is “safe, healthy and welcoming schools.”

You might recall a Dec. 7 story on a 14-year-old bully victim at Albert Lea High School. She was a ninth-grader coming to Albert Lea from a school in Iowa. She now attends Glenville-Emmons High.

Being successful as a new kid is usually about making friends with the right kind of crowd. New kids want to find the right friends just like anyone else, but when the kind of friends they want aren’t available, they all too often are going to make friends with someone, anyone, rather than go friendless. And those friends might be the wrong kind of friends.

The story already has achieved the result of getting discussion going about safety in the high school. That’s good.

We hope what comes from it, too, is that we grown-ups throughout Albert Lea look out more carefully for the new kids in our fair city, whether they are in school or walking down the sidewalk.

With the girl in that story, she probably could have used more help, rather than more punishment. Being new to a school is not easy. But the bullying didn’t just happen at school. It happened in the city, too. Being new to a town is hard, too.

If the district wants to achieve its primary aim of safe and welcoming schools, it needs your help, not your scorn. The schools cannot fix everything, but, together, with your help, the schools sure can achieve remarkable results.

We not only want safe and welcoming schools, we want a safe and welcoming community.

Let’s everyone keep an eye on new families and their children and make them feel welcome in Albert Lea.