School Bullying

Here is an article from the Jakarta Post (that's right, the one in Indonesia):
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/02/21/when-a-bully-strikes.html.
Indonesians seem to have similar problems to kids in Vancouver (a 15 year old killed himself over bullying, see Vancouver Post, February 20, 2010) and, apparently, kids everywhere. Barbara Colorosa has written that there are 3 victims in an incidence of bullying: the bully, the victim and the observer. The observer, in a sense, gives tacit approval to the bully by not interfering to stop the bullying incident. My biggest problem with bullying, and neither I or my children have been directly bullied, is the shame of parents who do not try to stop or change the situation. If a child is in an intolerable situation and parents do nothing to change it, isn't that tacit approval? There are a myriad of excuses to prevent intervention; the most famous of which would be the interference to one's job, be it career or wages necessary to one's survival; the reality would still be the child stays in an intolerable situation because the parent condones it; they would do something if they didn't think money more important. In a sense, the parents' lack of pro-action continues the bullying. It's a harsh assessment. Further, a parent who thinks a child must endure a situation to toughen up, to be prepared to face the world, in a sense, is contributing to make the world a harsher place. Kind of pessimistic, isn't it?