An elementary school student was hospitalized after she tried to kill herself at her school in Northwest Washington, officials said.
The girl was found Thursday morning hanging by a belt around her neck inside a restroom at the Adams campus of Oyster-Adams Bilingual School just north of Dupont Circle, officials said.
School workers removed the girl and administrated CPR before rescue workers took her to Children’s National Medical Center in serious condition, D.C. fire department spokesman Pete Piringer said.
The student, age 12 or 13, was listed in serious condition, Piringer said.
The student’s exact age or grade could not be released because of privacy laws, D.C. schools spokeswoman Jennifer Calloway said.
“We continue to investigate this incident,” she said.
Veronica Herrera, a mother of a fifth-grader at the school, was surprised to learn that someone that age would contemplate suicide.
“I can’t even think about something like that; she’s barely a teenager,” Herrera said.
Jaime Batres, whose 12-year-old daughter attends Adams, said he talked to his daughter about the incident and she was taking the news well. Batres said he always tried to talk to his kids to find out what was going on in their lives.
“She understands what happened but she said, ‘I can’t believe someone would do that do themselves,’ ” Batres said.
According to a new report by the Heritage Foundation and the Lexington Institute, D.C. police responded to 13 suicide attempts at D.C. schools during the 2007-08 academic year.
The District’s crisis intervention team counseled the staff members who found the girl and helped with the rescue, and planned to meet with students, school officials said.
A member of the crisis team who asked not to be identified said it was not unusual for someone that young to try to take her own life.
“Something is happening that they think that [suicide] is the only way out or they think, ‘I need some help,’ ” the crisis worker said.
