Principal George Bayles said the school is trying to break down the notion that you can't "narc" on friends who talk about suicide. Two Timpview students have taken their own lives the past three years.

"The reason we do it is to be proactive, not because we're having a real problem with it," Bayles said.

The Hope Squad sponsors a suicide prevention walk, presents an awareness video and sets up an information booth during the school year. The video is part of NAMI's Hope for Tomorrow program.

"It didn't aggrandize suicide," he said. "It didn't promote the thought that this is the way I can get some attention."

Still, he has parents object to talking about suicide in school. When people complain, Bayles says to them, "Why don't you go tell that boy's mother we spent too much time" on suicide prevention.

"One life makes it worth it."

Timpview is one of the few schools in Utah that talks openly about suicide. Bayles said he doesn't understand why schools aren't willing to address it.

"If they haven't had one (suicide), they're going to. I guarantee you they have kids who are thinking about it or who have tried it. . . . I don't know how you can not do anything."

Shurtleff shares the feeling.

The topic of suicide came to his attention during a national attorneys general meeting two years ago. His counterpart in Tennessee talked about the issue and his involvement with a Nashville-based prevention group called the Jason Foundation.

The speech hit him hard because before leaving for the conference his own son said he wanted to kill himself. Shurtleff's response was, "Oh, come on. Don't be silly."

Those words came back to haunt him, and he immediately walked out to call his son. He apologized and promised they would talk when he came home.

"I thought how awful. I can't believe I said those things. They could really be hurting. How could that make him feel?"

The more Shurtleff learned about suicide, the more he became an advocate for prevention and awareness. He doesn't mind using his position to get the word out, even if it's uncomfortable for Utahns.

"It is a taboo subject. They don't want to talk about it. It's an 'all is well in Zion' type of thing," he said. "We need to do something with the stigma."

Last November, Shurtleff brought the Jason Foundation to Utah. Thirty-three attorneys general are now associated with the prevention program.

"A lot of them see it as a charge for the protection of youth in their state," said Clark Flatt, who founded the organization in Hendersonville, Tenn.

There were some raised eyebrows among the state's suicide prevention fraternity when Shurtleff introduced the Jason Foundation. They didn't see the need to bring in an outside organization.