By Katherine Dailey, Michigan Advance
In the wake of a rise in teen suicides in Howell, one mom is hoping to use her own story to try to prevent more such tragedies in the future.
After Angelina Siders lost her daughter Dahlia, who was 12 at the time, to suicide in November 2024, she and her husband started Love, Dahlia, a nonprofit to honor her memory and to “spread kindness, encourage creativity and make the world beautiful,” she said. Since then, she’s been outspoken about sharing resources for both teenagers and families struggling with grief and mental health issues.
But after helping the families of two other teen girls through their own losses to suicide — including her older daughter Sophia’s best friend Bella — she decided to host a community-wide event to make these conversations more widespread.
“I was thinking, we just need to have a community meeting where, all this stuff that I keep having to repeat, I can just tell everybody,” Siders said. “We could even brainstorm, how do we stop this? We’re not going to know why, right? There’s just no knowing why at this point. But maybe we might be able to figure out how to stop it from happening again. And maybe, somebody, even if it’s just one kid, that we can prevent that, that would be amazing.”
“I’m just a mom that has this experience, and I think that’s why people are listening to me,” she said. “It’s weird. I never thought I’d be in this kind of position, but I am happily taking this position on because I know Dahlia would love to see me helping other kids.”
Siders expected to have a few dozen people coming to her community conversation, which will be held on Thursday evening at the Oceola Township Community Center. Instead, she has over 250 people interested in attending — and she does not intend for this to be the last such event.
She’s hoping to host a similar event every couple of months, she said. “It’s a conversation that’s not going to be one time. I think it’s got to continue, because we’re not going to fix it tomorrow. It’s just not going to happen.”
“Our community is deep in grief, and so we’ve kind of got to get through this heavy fog of pain so that we can start making change,” Siders continued.
On Monday, Howell Public Schools Superintendent Erin MacGregor sent an email to district parents acknowledging the recent tragedies.
“Our school community has experienced several losses this year. These tragedies, which include suicide and an accident, are heartbreaking and have deeply affected students, families, and staff across the district,” MacGregor said. “As superintendent and as a father, I want to acknowledge how difficult this has been for many of us in our community. When something like this happens, it is natural for us to feel sadness, confusion, concern, and a desire to protect the children in our lives.”
MacGregor then shared a link to community resources. The district is also holding an event on March 24 at 6:30 p.m. in the Howell High School Field House to “provide students an opportunity to participate in small group conversations led by trained facilitators with mental health professionals present to support and connect students to additional resources if needed.”
Siders noted that often when she talks to her fellow community members about the rise of teen suicides, their first instinct is to place blame — on the school district or on something else. But what Siders has found far more helpful is to seek out solutions from local organizations, whether that be after school spaces where students can go to not be alone or a recommendation of a therapist.
“I really want to make sure that we’re not playing the blame game, because honestly, none of us know exactly why this happened. You know, I thought I knew my daughter inside out and never would ever imagine, I mean, she was my best friend,” she said. “That’s kind of the goal of Thursday is just to get everybody talking. And I don’t think we’re going to come away with, okay, this is exactly what we’re going to do and how we’re going to stop this from ever happening again. But I think to start having those conversations and even letting the kids know that we care and are engaged and trying to help them, I think that would be as helpful as well”
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