She was about 12 years old when she first entered Robertsville Junior High.
"I had mixed feelings. I was excited to some point, and of course, I was nervous about it, not knowing what to expect," Lewis said. "It wasn't easy. It was very hard. It was stressful. I used to not want to go to school. Every day, I just didn't want to go."
She said the relationships among the students were not good and her reception was anything but friendly.
"They let you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you are not welcome at their school. They weren't friendly at all," she said. "There was a lot of name-calling, jeering, just the body language, the way they would get out. They didn't want to get close to you at all."