Ryan Halligan

Ryan Patrick Halligan (December 18, 1989 – October 7, 2003) was an American student who died by suicide at age 13 after being bullied by his classmates both in-person and online. According to the Associated Press, Halligan was repeatedly sent homophobic instant messages, and was "threatened, taunted and insulted incessantly".

Halligan's 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. John 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 cyberbullying. In 2008, his suicide and its causes were examined in a segment of the PBS Frontline television program entitled "Growing Up Online." Halligan's suicide has also been referenced in many other news stories on bullying.

Biography

Early life 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.

Bullying

2000–2001 When Halligan was in the fifth grade, he started to suffer bullying at the hands of a group of classmates because of his learning disorder, passion for music (drums and guitar), and love for drama. Halligan's 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 Halligan with words. His 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 the seventh grade.

2002–2003 In December 2002, Halligan told his father that the bullying had started again. Halligan asked for a Tae Bo Kick Boxing set for Christmas in order to learn how to defend himself. At first, Halligan's 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 two hours every night. After learning how to defend himself, Halligan's 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.

Summer 2003 According to his father and news reports, Halligan spent much of his time online during the summer of 2003, particularly on AIM and other instant messaging services. Halligan did not tell his parents about this. During the summer, Halligan was cyberbullied by schoolmates who taunted him, thinking Halligan was gay. He was also bullied at school about this; his father later learned that on one occasion, Halligan ran out of the classroom in tears. According to an ABC Primetime report, Ashley had been Halligan's friend and defended him when the bullying first started, but as she became more popular, Ashley left Halligan behind. He found out she only pretended to like Halligan to gain personal information about him. Ashley copied and pasted their private exchanges into other IMs among Halligan's 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 that he did not recognize. Halligan began communicating online with a pen-pal about suicide and death, and told him he was thinking about suicide. They had been exchanging information they had found on sites relating to death and suicide, including sites that taught them how to painlessly kill themselves. The pen-pal answered, "Phew. It's about fucking time," shortly after Halligan had told him he had been thinking about suicide, two weeks before Halligan killed himself. This was the last conversation Halligan had with the pen-pal. As Halligan's father found out, contrary to popular belief, Halligan's pen-pal was a boy he knew up until the third grade, when the boy and his parents moved away. When they found each other online, they reconnected.

The pen-pal had, according to Halligan's father, turned into a very negative person with a bleak outlook on life. Online, the boys discussed how much they hated their popular classmates and how they made them feel. The pen-pal suggested suicide as a way out, writing, "If you killed yourself you would really make them feel bad." Halligan's father said that the boy was the worst possible friend that Halligan could have had at that time.