In our mission to bring to light the growing problem of bullying in schools we have heard from many victims, school administrators and school police.
But what about the bullies themselves? What makes them lash out at others?
Anna Lemus is a 32 year old mother of two raising her family in south Reno but growing up she says she was a "bully" beginning in elementary school.
"I went to a predominantly minority school and being a little white girl it was difficult so I put my defenses up and it turned into me being a bully to students who were less strong."
Lemus says she was picked on as a third grader moving to Reno from Colorado. After that she decided because she lived in a tough neighborhood, she was going to be tough too.
Verbally attacking other students and eventually joining a gang.
"Anything I could get a hold of really, it was the style of hair, the way they wore their clothing, the funny hair cut, anything I could latch on to and make myself feel better I would attack them with."
Family therapist Dr. Jayne Kading works with children and families who have been on both sides of the bullying issue.
She says children bully for a variety of reasons and their home environment is key.
"They might be modeling behavior they see at home or in a care situation. Sometimes maybe aggression between a mother and father, maybe a sibling acts aggressively towards a young child and then the child picks up bullying and transfers it into the school system."
In Anna Lemus's case she bullied for self preservation or survival which Kading says is another common reason.
"A coping mechanism where they have had some type of experience that causes them to feel at risk or fearful and developing a genre I'm going to be tough no one can harm me."
So what about bully's who don't seem to have these reasons to lash out at others?
Kading says some kids are just hard wired to be bullies.
"It's a genetic propensity, they are born with a temperament that causes them to feel oppositional they don't necessarily recognize they way to build raport with others."
Anna Lemus ended up in a school counseling program in high school with a boy she bullied in grade school.
It was a coincidence but a turning point for her.
He eventually said that the humiliation that I put him through publicly made it so he couldn't have healthy relationships with women or girls and that he had a strong hatred towards them."
Lemus says the counseling class helped her target work through his hurt but also forced her to figure out why she had gone down the path of bullying.
"Were you surprised to hear the impact you had on this young man? "Oh definitely I was only a junior in high school when I heard that it's was a lot to deal with we were in counseling class for a year it took me almost a year to really say I'm sorry."
What's also interesting about Lemus's story is that just recently she has had to deal with bullying with her daughter now in junior high but in this case, her daughter was the victim.
She's open with her children about her past experiences with bullying and hopes that they can learn from her mistakes.
