The bystander is defined as an active and involved participant in the social architecture of school violence, rather than a passive witness. Bullying is redefined from a triadic (bully-victim-bystander) rather than dyadic (bully-victim) perspective. Teachers, including administrators, and students can promote or ameliorate bullying and other forms of violence when in this social role. Cases are used to illustrate this phenomenon, including one in which a teacher is murdered. Data are presented from a study of teachers' perceptions of other teachers who bully students, suggesting that bullying of students by teachers and bullying of teachers by students is a factor in the aggravation of school bullying and violence that needs to be more openly discussed. An intervention in nine elementary schools involving 3,600 students is outlined to illustrate how a focus on reflective mentalizing and awareness of the importance of the helpful bystander role can promote a peaceful school-learning environment for students and teachers. The paper concludes with an outline for research into how communities and schools adopt bystanding roles when faced with complex problems like youth violence, and how they may avoid facing the problems by blaming law enforcement and educators.

Objective: The study examined teachers' perceptions of bullying by other teachers to see what causes and characteristics were attributed to such bullying teachers, and how often teachers were themselves bullied by students. Method: 116 teachers from seven elementary schools completed an anonymous questionnaire reflecting their feelings and perceptions about theirown experiences of bullying, and how they perceive colleagues over the years. Results: Resultsconfirmed that teachers who experienced bullying themselves when young are more likely to bothbully students and experience bullying by students both in classrooms and outside the classroom. Factor analysis revealed two types of bullying teacher: a sadistic bully type and a bully-victim type. Conclusions: The implications for the mental health of children and for effective teaching are discussed, in the light of widespread recognition of the traumatic effects of bullying on childhood development.

A low-cost antiviolence intervention that does not focus on individual pathology or interfere with the educational process may improve the learning environment in elementary schools.

This paper summarizes a theoretical argument for the use of a mentalization-based approach to the systemic problem of school bullying. The Peaceful Schools Project of the Menninger Department of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine, is an experimental test of this model. Data is presented from a randomized controlled trial of this intervention in nine elementary schools in the Midwest.

A developmental model is proposed applying attachment theory to complex social systems to promote social change. The idea of mentalizing communities is outlined with a proposal for three projects testing the model: ways to reduce bullying and create a peaceful climate in schools, projects to promote compassion in cities by a focus of end-of-life care, and a mentalization-based intervention into parenting style of borderline and substance abusing parents.

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The paper summarises the literature and our clinical experience with the bystander role in school bullying and other violence. The shift from bully focus to school climate focus is central, as well as seeing the plight of the bully and victim as not signs of individual psychopathology, but signs of markedly dysfunctional school leadership systems and very dysfunctional dynamics within a school with serious bullying. We suggest based on 20 years of research, that the focus should be on an integrated bottom up approach that allows each school to find its own path.Power is not an institution, and not a structure, neither is it a certain strength we are endowed with, it is the name that one attributes to a complex strategic situation in a particular society.

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