Nearly one in every three young people reports they've experienced bullying.

In fact, it's such a problem, some of the country's most respected researchers are now sounding an alarm.

How bad is bullying in Utah schools? Education Specialist Nadine Wimmer set out to show you.

We took our cameras to elementary playgrounds and junior high hallways. And without fail, we found troubling behavior that likely takes place in all schools.

For parents and students it may be cause for bully beware.

Our cameras caught how it often starts out... horseplay, fake fighting....it seemed innocent at first.

Then a group of boys at an elementary playground in the Salt Lake Valley ganged up against a classmate. The kicks and takedowns went on so long the boy resorted to throwing his shoes and angrily charging at his tormentors.

Different day, same school ground. This time, a group of boys gangs up on another boy in what looks like simple roughhousing.

Again and again, they pin him on the ground, they pull at his pants, even step on his head.

But watch as the target of their fun huddles up next to the school dumpster--visible evidence that fun crossed the line.

Sheral Schowe/: "FOR THE VICTIMS OF BULLYING, IT GOES WELL BEYOND TEASING."

Anthony Hartwell/Bully Victim: "I JUST WOULDN'T GO OUTSIDE, BECAUSE EVERY TIME I DID, THEY WERE THERE WAITING FOR ME, THEY'D BEAT UP ON ME. I'D COME HOME WITH MY FACE SCRAPED.")

"I CAME HOME WITH BLACK EYES."

Kendyll Dunn/Victim of bullying: "I WOULD JUST CRY AT SCHOOL AND HIDE UNDER THE TEACHER'S DESK."

"I DIDN'T GET VERY GOOD GRADES AT THAT SCHOOL, BECAUSE I WAS ALWAYS WORRYING WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT, IF THEY'D BEAT UP ON ME."

A new survey by the Journal of the American Medical Association found in an average classroom, three children spend the day in fear.

Bullying is worst among 6th to 8th graders, and boys are more likely than girls to be bullies, and the victims of bullies.

Most important, researchers concluded, bullying is not a childhood rite of passage that children work out on their own. Adults at home and at schools must get involved.

Dr. Tonja Nansel/PhD: "I THINK THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS UNDERSTANDING HOW WIDESPREAD BULLYING IS AND THAT IT IS A PROBLEM, A SERIOUS PROBLEM."

To underscore their warning, they point to recent, high-profile school shootings that involved issues of bullying and revenge.

Utah experts agree, if we want to lower the violence in our communities, we should first address the problem of bullies.

Dr. Mike Stevens/Valley Mental Health: "BECAUSE OTHERWISE YOU'RE GOING TO SEE AGGRESSIVE KIDS MORE LIKELY TO AGGRESS AND GET AWAY WITH IT AND THEREFORE, MORE WILLING TO BECOME SYSTEMATIC BULLIES, AND YOU'RE MORE LIKELY TO MORE VICTIMS."

So what are schools doing to address this growing concern? That's what we'll look at Friday-- a new approach to teaching students, parents and educators how to deal with bullies.