Teen boy attending remote classes commits suicide; mom says her son was feeling terribly isolated amid COVID-19 pandemic

A 16-year-old Maine boy who reportedly felt isolated and depressed amid the COVID-19 pandemic has taken his own life, his family said, according to reports.

The teen died last Friday, and leaves behind his mother, father, and a younger sister.

What are the details?

Spencer Smith, a sophomore at Brunswick High School in Brunswick, Maine, is dead after spending much of the school year alone due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

His mother Angela, according to reports, took to Facebook to vent her heartbreak, writing, "This remote learning is crap."

"I just lost a son because he couldn't be with his friends," she wrote. "He was trapped in the house. He felt like he lost his friends and had a hard time with his school work. He felt he had no future. He hated what society was becoming. So he took the easy way out. Parents, please take everything your kids are saying seriously. Give them a huge hug and don't let go. You never know if it will be the last time. This house is so quiet now. I would give anything to have the noise back."

His father, Jay, told WMTW-TV, "The social distance ain't working for the kids. I mean, the kids are having it hard."

Jay said that his son, a football player, was despondent to find out that traditional football would be replaced by flag football and that distance learning would soon become the norm amid the pandemic.

"As soon as he found out it wasn't going to be a regular football season, looking back, we noticed he stopped working out," Jay told the station. "He stopped riding his bike as much to the point he didn't even work out anymore. Instead of working out, he took naps. Thinking back, the last few months, we realized we missed catching the signs that things were getting worse for him. It wasn't the same type of practice because they had to social distance. He didn't like that part of it."

According to NBC News, Spencer eventually asked his parents to learn from home full-time, as just one day of attending in-school classes was too stressful. He also said that it was too difficult to see his friends, but not be able to interact with them.

What else?

The outlet noted, "[Jay] said his son left a note behind detailing his struggles with being isolated, writing that he felt like he was 'locked in this house.'"

"He was a fun-loving kid, but we didn't see the pain that apparently he was in," Jay admitted. "I'm not doing this about Spencer. I'm not trying to talk to you about Spencer. I'm talking about all teenagers and the way they feel. He wasn't average. He was our son. But that's not the life he wanted. He wanted more out of life. He wanted everything out of life."

You can watch a video report on the teen's untimely death here.