SAN DIEGO -- A dangerous and bloody trend is all the rage in at least one San Diego middle school.
“Most of the kids cut either on their thighs, wrists, arms, like on your hand,” said a former student we will call Desiree.
Desiree used to attend Creative Performing Media Arts, a magnet middle school in Clairemont.
She started cutting at 12.
“I started because I was being bullied at CPMA,” she said.
“It’s addicting,” she said. “Half of the people I know there did it when I was there.”
“At CPMA there’s an epidemic of children who are cutting themselves,” said a mother of a 12-year-old girl, who she just transferred out of CPMA because of cutting.
“They said my husband and I needed to pick up our daughter because she had cuts on her arm. When I got there I saw all the cuts on her arm and I started crying. I was really crying. My daughter had hurt herself. She’s only 12 years old, barely 12,” the mother said, adding her daughter's issues have escalated since.
“The main person that told me there was an epidemic was the [CPMA] school counselor,” the mother said. “I think it’s a big problem that parents need to know about because the school is not addressing the issue properly.”
“It’s become a fad and the school district should make parents aware,” she said.
Her daughter recently checked out a book from her new middle school’s library.
“My daughter was reading a book called Choke,” she said.
The book is about kids choking each other until they pass out.
“Middle-schoolers should not have access to books like this,” the mother said.
Desiree no longer cuts. She is also at a different school now.
“I didn’t want to be that person. I didn’t want to be negative. I wanted to help myself and push myself forward to stop, but it took a long time,” Desiree said.
10News contacted a San Diego Unified School District spokeswoman for comment late Friday afternoon.
The spokeswoman said she will investigate over the weekend and have a response for us Monday. She also said cutting among middle-schoolers is a nationwide problem.
