Ryan Halligan

Ryan Patrick Halligan (December 18, 1989 – October 7, 2003) was an American student who died by suicide at the age of 13 after being bullied by his classmates in person and cyber-bullying online.

According to the Associated Press, Halligan was repeatedly sent homophobic instant messages, and was "threatened, taunted and insulted incessantly".

His father, John P. Halligan, a former IBM engineer, subsequently lobbied for laws to be passed in Vermont to improve how schools address bullying and suicide prevention.

He has also given speeches at schools in other states about the story of his son.

Halligan's case has been cited by legislators in various states proposing legislation to curb cyber-bullying.

In Vermont, laws were subsequently enacted to address the cyberbullying problem and the risk of teen suicides, in response.

Halligan was born on December 18, 1989, in Poughkeepsie, New York, the son of John P. and Kelly Halligan.

His family moved to Essex Junction, Vermont, where Halligan attended Hiawatha Elementary School and, later, Albert D. Lawton Middle School.

He was described by his father as a "gentle, very sensitive soul," who experienced some developmental delays affecting speech and physical coordination in his early school years.

Although he overcame those difficulties by the fourth grade, "He still struggled; school was never easy to him, but he always showed up with a smile on his face, eager to do his best," said his father.

When Halligan was in 5th grade, he started to suffer bullying at the hands of a group of students at his school because of his learning disorder, his passion for music (drums and guitar), and his love for drama.

His father said that when Halligan told him he was being picked on, his initial response was to ignore the boys, as they were just bullying him with words.

The family later said in a short documentary that Halligan enrolled in counseling, with little success.

After that he moved up to middle school, where the bullying continued when Halligan was in 7th grade.

In December 2002, Halligan told his father that the bullying had started again.

He asked for a Tae Bo Kick Boxing set for Christmas in order to learn how to defend himself.

At first, his father wanted to go to the school principal and sort things out, but Halligan insisted that he wanted to learn how to fight, believing that complaining to the school about the boys would make things worse.

After Christmas, Halligan and his father developed a routine of practicing downstairs in the basement for 2 hours every night.

After he had learned to defend himself, his father told him not to pick fights at school, but said that if any student ever touched him aggressively, Halligan had his father's permission to defend himself.

In February 2003, Halligan had a fight with a bully, which was broken up by the assistant principal; after that, the bully stopped bothering him.

Halligan's father said that he was proud of his son for sticking up for himself.

Toward the end of 7th grade, Halligan told his father that he and the bully had become friends.

His parents warned him to be careful about the friendship, because the bully had been harassing him for a long time.

The two boys were friends for a short amount of time.

After Halligan told the bully about an embarrassing examination required after he had stomach pains, he learned that the bully misused the story to spread a rumor that Halligan was gay.

According to his father and news reports, during the summer of 2003, Halligan spent much of his time online, particularly on AIM and other instant messaging services.

Halligan did not tell his parents about this.

During the summer, he was cyber-bullied by schoolmates who taunted him, thinking he was gay.

Halligan was also bullied at school about this; his father later learned that on one occasion, Halligan ran out of the classroom in tears.

As Halligan had unintentionally archived these online conversations on his hard drive when he installed DeadAIM, his father was able to read these discussions.

Halligan had deliberately saved transcripts of online exchanges in which Ashley, a popular girl whom Halligan had a crush on, pretended to like him.

Later at school, Ashley told him that she was only kidding and that he was a "loser".

According to an ABC Primetime report, she had once been his friend and defended him when the bullying first started, but as she became more popular, she left him behind.

He found out she only pretended to like him to gain personal information about him.

She copied and pasted their private exchanges into other IMs among his schoolmates to embarrass and humiliate him.

After Ashley had called him a "loser", Halligan said, "It's girls like you who make me want to kill myself."

His father found out about this later because it was a matter of record with the local police.

Halligan's father also discovered some disturbing conversations between Halligan and a boy with a screen name he did not recognize.

In 2008, his suicide and its causes were examined in a segment of the PBS Frontline television program entitled "Growing Up Online."

His suicide has also been referenced in many other news stories on bullying.