"EMO"

You can't believe it. A girl in my last period class of the day tells me the day is not good because she went to counseling. (This is the girl I spoke of in a post a few days ago whose dad hit her mom.)

I asked her what her counseling was about and she tells me, "I cut myself so I have to go to counseling."

I first learned about cutting a few weeks ago from one of the counselors. Basically, a person cuts himself with a sharp object. They generally carve a word or words that describe how they feel. This particular girl had carved "Life sucks." Well no wonder she feels that way.

She was perturbed by the counselor's nonchalant attitude toward her "cutting." The counselor's strategy was to laugh at her and tell her that it was dumb. This strategy supposedly has as it's object that the subject will see the act as ridiculous and stop doing it. I doubt that will happen here.
After a minute another student heard her telling me about her "cutting."

"You told him that you cut?"

"Yeah, everybody knows."

She then went on to tell me that almost all her friends cut. Another helpful student sought to clear the air: "they're called EMO, and they're really mad. They cut themselves when they get mad. EMO stands for emotional."

So I ask, "And there are students like that here?"

"Yes. A lot."

Well, there you have it. Teaching today.