FLORENCE • Teenagers think they’re invulnerable, but U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet stopped by Florence High School on Monday to tell students that health care reform should be a top priority for them.

“You should be deeply concerned about our budget deficits,” he said, “because you’re the ones that are going to have to pay it back.”

In a gym set up for volleyball, Bennet returned serve on questions on issues ranging from Guantanamo Bay detainees coming to the Supermax prison here — “I think the likelihood of anybody coming here is extremely low” — to gay marriage — “as a voter in this state, I’d vote for it”.

One student asked about “death panels” in health care reform bills now before Congress. “There are no death panels in this legislation,” Bennet replied. “How many people believe there are death panels in this bill?” Of about 500 in the audience, maybe a dozen raised their hands, and his questioner was not among them. “It’s just not true,” Bennet said.

Bennet said his concern was for “the working families in our state that are getting crushed by increasing health care costs.”

“If people have a better idea than the ones that are contained in the bill to get a hold of those costs, terrific,” Bennet continued, saying discussion of the issues was derailed by “continuing to say that there are death panels in the bill when you know they’re not in there.”

Bennet was appointed in January by Gov. Bill Ritter after Ken Salazar left the Senate to become President Obama’s interior secretary. The former Denver public schools chief is little known outside the capital, so he has some catching up to do as he seeks election to his seat in 2010.

Part of Bennet’s get-acquainted effort has been a tour of all 64 Colorado counties, of which Monday’s stops in Huerfano, Custer and Fremont counties were a part. Michael Amodeo, a Bennet spokesman, said the senator would wrap up the tour before Congress reconvenes after Labor Day.

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Mary Lou Sebben helped Lincoln Elementary first-grader Jemadrea Quintero try on a jacket at Operation School Bell on Monday, Aug. 24, 2009. Photo by Christopher Short, The Gazette