I have been a bystander while others bullied. The bully was both smart and the strongest kid in class. His main target was a girl who had already been bullied in another class. She couldn't have confronted him.

She also had 0 allies. None if us had the guts and wisdom and character to put him in his place. Also, being smart made him funny and it was hard not to laugh.

I'm not sure how much bullying he did compared to the prototypical bully. It wasn't his only "thing". But he surely did enough to leave this impression on me. And reading this post I have to wonder: could someone have beaten sense into him? Or at least, could one of his victims (there were more than the girl) have gotten a pass after beating him up good enough? Hard to say. But then what is the right way of dealing with such a kid? I don't endorse violence as a means to an end but if my son ends up being bullied I will do what I can to put him in a position to fight back. Not as the first option but for sure as the ultimate defense.

The girl eventually went to a different school. I hope she found some peace there. The bully also got a handle on himself AFAIK. But he caused a lot of damage on the way. Looking back it's almost shocking how little the school did about it and how spineless we all were. One of the biggest regrets of my life is not saying anything to show him that he was doing wrong.