Editor's note: Suicidal thoughts and behaviors can be reduced. If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text TALK to 741741.

The last time Jeremy Fries and his girlfriend, Ally, saw each other, they were holding hands in the high school cafeteria just like they did virtually every day during lunch.

The sophomores had dated for almost a year, since Ally wowed Jeremy with her performance in their school’s 2017 winter play, a comic murder mystery. Jeremy even followed Ally into theater, and they were set to begin rehearsals for “Anything Goes,” the school’s spring musical.

Ally, a tall honor roll student with brown eyes and dark curly hair, barely said a word during lunch that day, but Jeremy didn’t think much of it.

“It wasn’t that out of the ordinary,” he said. “She had her happy days, and she had her sad days.”

As the couple left the cafeteria, Ally told Jeremy she loved him. He climbed the stairs to history class, and she quietly slipped away to kill herself.

She was 15.

Jeremy Fries, now 17, wants other teenagers to learn from Ally’s suicide. (Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Jeremy Fries, now 17, wants other teenagers to learn from Ally’s suicide. (Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Ally, who died in December 2017, fought an agonizing battle with depression. She took anti-depressants and regularly saw a psychiatrist and two counselors, her mother said. But it wasn’t enough to help the Hunterdon Central Regional High School student overcome a growing health crisis that’s threatening to define her generation.

“She just wanted to feel regular,” Ally’s mother, Holly, said in an interview at her home earlier this year. (The family members requested their last name and certain details about Ally’s death be withheld to protect their privacy).

“The hardest part for me, watching what Ally was going through, was just knowing that there's really very little I could do to stop it,” said Jeremy, now 17.

Across New Jersey, and nationwide, adolescents and teens are reporting alarming rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. In 2017, there were 100 documented suicides among New Jersey’s 15- to 24-year-olds, the highest number and rate since the 1990s, according to federal data.

“Without a doubt, we have a mental health crisis. Period." — Teri Brister, National Alliance on Mental Illness

Students report feeling hopeless and empty. Desperate for help, many are taking advice from outspoken celebrities and pop-culture flashpoints like “Dear Evan Hansen” and begging parents and officials for support, advocates said.

Yet they keep suffering under a system that often fails them at every level, an NJ Advance Media investigation found.

Interviews with more than two dozen mental health experts, school administrators, counselors and parents, along with an analysis of mental health staffing data, reveal a frayed safety net that leaves young people dangerously vulnerable.

After decades of schools largely ignoring adolescent mental health, tens of thousands of students in New Jersey still attend schools without the recommended number of certified nurses or counselors. Most school psychologists have almost no interaction with students who aren’t classified as special education.

Like most states, New Jersey also has a stunning shortage of child and adolescent psychiatrists, creating incredibly long wait times for an initial appointment, experts said. Making matters worse, most psychiatrists don’t accept insurance, forcing families to pay as much as $600 for the first visit.

For those who can afford the high costs, there’s another hurdle: Some counties don’t even have a psychiatrist who specializes in children.

And while there’s no cure-all for mental illness or suicidal thoughts, comprehensive changes to the school and healthcare systems must be made, experts said.

“Without a doubt, we have a mental health crisis. Period,” said Teri Brister, director of support and education for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “And it’s especially concerning with young adults.”

About 70% of teens ages 13 to 17 said anxiety and depression are a “major problem” among peers, more so than bullying or drug addiction, according to a recent Pew survey. And suicide is now the second-leading cause of death among teenagers nationwide, surpassing homicide in 2014.

New Jersey’s suicide rate is actually lower than the national average, a point of optimism for some experts. But the state’s rising number of youth suicides was led by a surprising spike in deaths among young women, who historically take their lives at a lower rate than teenage boys. The actual number could be even higher because suicides often are not properly reported, experts said.

Ally’s parents, who had resources to get help, don’t blame anyone for her death, Holly said. But they worry about other kids going through the same experience.

“Is the system broken?” Holly asked. “I’m not really sure what the system is.”