Darlington mum opens up about son's struggles with autism and bullying following death
18 year-old Sam Coutts was found in the toilets of his college in Darlington
Last updated 26th Feb 2026
The mum of an autistic teenager who was found dead at his college in Darlington is opening up about his struggles at the hands of others.
18 year-old Sam Coutts died at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form on the 13th of January.
His mum Kirsten is hoping by speaking out it will encourage kids to be kinder and more understanding of autism.
She said: "It's been awful. It's still quite raw so it's a bit like having the floor pulled out from under your feet.
"He had all sorts of hobbies. He'd go from one to another. He could do a Rubik's Cube in 30 seconds. He was just such a lovely person. His whole take on the whole universe was interesting and the way he looked at the world was amazing. What I really loved about him was nothing was impossible.
"Sam was bullied at secondary school. He didn't offer that information readily and prior to that, he'd gone to a village school and he was absolutely fine. He moved on to secondary school and he had lots of friends there but he did allude to the fact that people weren't always kind to him.
"I think he went into the secondary school environment and he did start to struggle. He did start to show signs that he was struggling. Initially, autism can come out in lots of different ways and I think because he had been at a village school with small classes, he coped absolutely fine.
"Sam struggled with that autistic label and I genuinely just think it's because of the unkindness that other people showed. It's that drip, drip, drip effect. It's these little comments that people throw out there whether they're having a bad day.
"We don't actually know what somebody's going through do we? We can say rude things, make rude comments about the way people look, about the way they walk, the way they talk, a mark on their face, the way their accents are, it doesn't matter what it is, how do we know that they haven't had a lifetime of that? Well as it turned out Sam had quite a lot of that for a few years and then he built some trust, the rug was pulled away, and here we are today. We don't have Sam anymore.
"I think parents need to be held responsible for their children's behaviour. All of my children were actually bullied at one point, and I'm not trying to make that sound like I'm a victim or anything, but it just so happens it's been that way. I think it's become fundamentally worse because of social media."
Sam's family are waiting for a full inquest to establish the full circumstances around his death.