DENVER – Dressed in a sharp blue suit and neat tie, University of Denver freshman Thomas Tarler looked like he fit right in at the Capitol when he testified Monday at the House Education Committee.

No one would have guessed what he did for his birthday last Friday.

“I spent it in a psychiatric ward. I had to turn myself in Wednesday night because I just couldn’t handle it, and I didn’t trust myself to keep myself safe,” he said.

Tarler, an alumnus of the Colorado Youth Advisory Council, urged legislators to pass House Joint Resolution 1004, which calls for suicide-prevention training for teachers and a youth-led working group to reduce Colorado’s sky-high suicide rate.

Durango High School junior Brenna Christensen, a current COYAC member, also testified for the resolution.

“Kids like to wear black and be upset and talk about how terrible the world is. So sometimes the kids who actually are experiencing depression and suicidal thoughts get glossed over, because they’re not the ones wearing black or they’re not the ones making the biggest fuss,” Christensen said.

Christensen and her youth council colleagues researched and drafted the resolution after identifying suicide – not pregnancy, drugs or crumbling schools – as the No. 1 issue among Colorado teenagers.

The youth council conducted a survey of 712 young people and found that 70 percent were “very concerned” about suicide.

Comments from the 13 House Education Committee members backed up the survey. Four legislators spoke out about their personal experience with suicide, among friends, family members or in the schools where they teach for their day jobs.

The resolution zeroes in on teachers because they have frequent contact with students.

Christensen’s teacher had to cope with the suicide of one of his brightest students several years ago, but the experience helped him to help Christensen when she went through a rough time last year.

“That one mistake of not noticing that kid and thinking, upon reflection, that you should have known, can haunt a teacher. We want to give them the tools that allow them to save lives,” said Christensen, daughter of Katherine and Steve Christensen.

HJR 1004 passed 13-0 and now faces a vote of the full House.

Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, created the Youth Advisory Council through a bill in 2008, in order to inform legislators about topics important to young people.

The youth council has taken positions on bills, but the suicide-prevention resolution is its first piece of original legislation.

“It’s doing exactly what I had hoped,” Roberts said.

Animas High School student Daniel Fallon-Cyr also serves on the 40-person council and attended the meeting Monday.

jhanel@durangoherald.com