Katelyn Gutierrez, 15, a sophomore at Carter High School, uses a dropper to transfer soda water during a science interactive activity while attending STEM apalooza Student Conference at San Bernardino Valley College in California on November 1, 2019. Photo: IC

Officials from a California school district were left red-faced after students who dialed a suicide prevention hotline listed on their ID badges instead stumbled on a sex line.

"I was just kind of flabbergasted. I was very surprised," parent Janene Lavelle told the local ABC station after her daughter, who attends middle school, alerted her to the mixup.

Lavelle said the teen had dialed the number for kicks and was in disbelief when she got a sex hotline.

"Someone who genuinely needs help like that, they shouldn't hear that kind of thing from what they thought was going to help them," the student was quoted as telling a local CBS affiliate. 

The suicide prevention number was in a directory of emergency lines and other resources on the back of badges for students at New Vista Middle School in Lancaster, a 90-minute drive north of downtown Los Angeles, the US.

However, because of a mistake with just one digit, a sex hotline number instead of the correct suicide prevention number was given to students.