J.C. Cox has come to terms with his son Jonathan's suicide.

They are not terms anyone would choose. They are almost more than he can stand.

The first thing he had to accept was this:

"There's nothing I can do for him anymore," Cox says. "You always hear that it helps to help someone else. Well, it does."

Four suicides in less than two years by students at Green Mountain High School, including Jonathan Cox's in 2002, was a shocking number - even in Colorado, which has the seventh-highest suicide rate in the country.

The Lakewood school's losses galvanized a community and led to the creation of the Second Wind Fund.

The fund pays for troubled teenagers to see mental-health professionals.

J.C. Cox became a volunteer and then a board member with the fund, which in the past five years has worked with 750 teens from 200 Denver-area schools. All are still alive.

"They are a pretty remarkable agency," said Carol Breslau, a vice president at the Colorado Trust, which promotes health care in the state and has a $5 million suicide-prevention program. "What they do is essential."

A lifeline of support

In 2005, Colorado's overall suicide rate was 16.8 deaths per 100,000, state Department of Public Health and Environment statistics show.

The 2004 teen suicide rate was 4.7 per 100,000 nationally and 8.7 in Colorado, according to state figures.

For Coloradans ages 10 to 34, suicide is the second-leading cause of death, behind traffic accidents.

As soon as the Jefferson County coroner ruled that 17-year-old Jonathan had taken his own life, the world became a different place for his father.

"I thought about going after him," Cox said of his son. "I wanted to go get him. Irrational."

Cox instead clutched at a lifeline - a call from Jeff Lamontagne asking him to volunteer with Second Wind.

This is a copy of a photo of Jonathan Cox who was 17 years old when he committed suicide. He was a student at Green Mountain High school. The year he killed himself 2001/2002, 3 other students killed themselves at the high school. His father J.C. Cox is a board member of The Second WInd foundation which helps get troubled youth the counseling they need. (Post / Helen H. Richardson)

"At the time Second Wind was just something else I could grab at," says Cox. "We couldn't see what it would turn into."

For Lamontagne, an environmental lawyer who attended Green Mountain Presbyterian Church, news of the suicides at the high school next door was jolting.

"I didn't know any of the kids. I just thought this church should be doing something," Lamontagne said.

He asked high school counselors what would make a real difference.

They told him that half their students had poor or no insurance coverage for mental-health care.

Jarrod Hindman, manager of the state health department's Office of Suicide Prevention, said that 90 percent of those who die by suicide have a diagnosable mental illness, such as depression.

The going rate for a private therapist is $80 to $125 an hour, Lamontagne said. Some insurers cover almost nothing.

"Sometimes a suicidal kid has to wait a month to see someone," said Lamontagne, now Second Wind's executive director. "They wait a month between sessions. They often are limited to three sessions."

Second Wind works quickly.

"A school counselor calls me. It's a five- minute conversation. The paperwork is streamlined," Lamontagne said.

A teenager sees someone right away, sometimes the same day, Lamontagne said.

The teens can see someone twice a week. They attend an average of eight sessions, although they have the option of as many as 20.

"We foot the bill," Lamontagne says. "No one else in the country is doing this."

The volunteer core of Second Wind comes from churches. It has 25 faith partners, but it also has local business support, including Green Mountain Dental Group and Jamba Juice.

Second Wind, which has an annual budget of $340,000, has negotiated a reduced therapy rate of $60 an hour. All counselors are licensed.

Coping with pain

Cox has no idea why his son - who wasn't bullied and who had lots of friends and a nice girlfriend - killed himself, and he must live with the mystery.

"There was never any explanation. There never will be an explanation," Cox says. "I will ask the question 'why?' for the rest of my life."

He had noticed his son had grown a little distant. "I thought it was his age," he says.

Cox says his son must have been in great pain.

"I have to tell myself it was an illness," he said. "If you broke your arm, you'd ask for help. But when there's a mental problem, people won't ask for help."

Second Wind's message to kids - a message it has recruited young "ambassadors" to spread at their own schools - is: "It's quite normal to think about suicide. It's healthy and necessary to get help."

For one Lakewood 18-year-old, now a freshman in English at Colorado State University, Second Wind made all the difference.

The woman, who asked not to be named, said her junior year of high school threw her for a loop.

"I had an identity, a preconceived idea of who I was, and then it didn't fit anymore," she said. " I knew I was struggling, but I wasn't willing to admit it to anyone."

Her dad, however, had been a Second Wind volunteer.

"My dad planted the seed that I could get help," she said. "Part of me always knew that suicide was a permanent solution to a temporary problem."

Lamontagne said most teens don't have the life experience to know they won't always feel bad.

Cox has the life experience to know he always will ache for his son.

"It still never leaves my thoughts," he said. "The panic attacks have subsided. The agony is not quite as intense, at least not all the time. But if you lose a kid, the pain never goes away.

"You start to feel a little better," he said. "Then you feel guilty about feeling better."

"Second Wind has become so much more than a referral service," Cox added. "It's a support group for survivors. It's brought the entire community together."

Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it