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.