'It is merciless': Father of 14-year-old who died by suicide turns grief into action

When you walk into the Herndon's home in Sale Creek, there's a memorial of photos and artwork to Silas, a 14-year-old whose light went out too soon.

Silas, a student at the Chattanooga School for Arts and Sciences from Kindergarten through the first day of ninth grade, died by suicide in August of 2025.

Speaking out weeks after losing his child, Mark Herndon said there are too many stories like this one his family now faces.

“We cannot sit here and not do anything anymore," Herndon said. "They’re crying out to us, you know? There are things that we are missing by not hearing. It is merciless, it is cruel, how dangerous and how little attention we give to depression.”

Herndon described Silas as a quiet kid, who had a smile that "spoke." In a peaceful, loving, and spiritual home, with ca