Nearly every child is affected by bullying at school at some point in his life. That may sound like an exaggeration, but it is true. Some children are the ones who are bullied, the ones who are teased and tormented. Other children are the bullies—these are the children who are doing the teasing and tormenting. But there is a third group of children affected by bullying as well—the bullying bystanders.

Bystanders to bullying at school can be just as affected by the bullying behavior as the bully and his victim. There are two types of bystanders—the hiders and the helpers. Hiders are the kids at school who see the bullying happening, but they do not speak up. Instead, they tend to hide from the behavior in hopes that the bully will not turn on them next. In contrast, helpers are the bully’s allies. These are the people who walk around with the bully and egg him on, giving him support.
Bystanders at school can be just as affected by the bullying as the victim.

After all, it can be rather nerve-racking to sit back and think that you could be next, that any moment now, the bully could turn his attention to you. So, the hider bullies often try to just stay out of the way. They may want to help the victim and may wish they had the guts to stand up to the bully; however, their cautiousness makes them stay back. Interestingly, the same goes for the helper bullies—they, too, may wish they could help the victim; however, they feel it is safer to stick on the side of the bully.

Bullying will likely be a problem in schools for a long time—as long as kids are different from each other, there will be some who try to take advantage of that fact and act as bullies.