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. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.