A 16-year-old Maine teen has died by suicide after struggling with the isolation of virtual classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, his family said.
Spencer Smith, who was a sophomore at Brunswick High School, had found his mostly-online class schedule to be challenging since it meant that he was away from his friends, news station WMTV reported.
“The social distance ain’t working for the kids. I mean, the kids are having it hard,” his father, Jay Smith told the news station.
Even with his one day of in-person classes, he felt it was difficult to really connect with his peers so he asked to stay home.
“He was a fun-loving kid, but we didn’t see the pain that apparently he was in,” his dad said.
His dad said the teen had spent the summer bulking up to be a lineman for the football team.
But he was crushed when he learned that the sport would be replaced by flag football.
“As soon as he found out it wasn’t going to be a regular football season, looking back, we noticed he stopped working out,” his dad said.
“He stopped riding his bike as much to the point he didn’t even work out anymore. Instead of working out, he took naps.”
His father said the family “missed catching the signs that things were getting worse for him” before he took his own life Dec. 4.
“He wanted more out of life. He wanted everything out of life,” Smith said.
