Bystanders in the School Violence Situations From the Pupil Perspective

Abstract

Bullying rarely takes place between two individuals in isolation, usually, it occurs with pupil’s bystanders present. How often pupils take the role of bystander, what bystanders usually do in the bullying situation and how it can be explained was examined with 5003 pupils attending 55 Latvia’s schools. Responses indicated that more than a third (n=1913) of all respondents admitted that they had been in a situation where they witnessed another pupil being bullied. After analyzing the responses of those respondents, was concluded that although the majority of pupils felt bad about it, most did nothing about it or did not consider the situation important for involvement. This could be explained by the fact that the majority of children did not know what to do in the particular bullying situation. The implications for research and practice are debated.