Ryan Halligan
From 2000-2002 Ryan was constantly bullied for his learning disability and his unusual hobbies. In 2002 he and dad practiced boxing in case he ever needed to defend himself against the other kids. The next year he got into a fight with a kid who later became his friend. That is, until he spread a rumor about Ryan being gay. According to his father Ryan spent much of his summer online, particularly on AIM and other instant messaging services. During the summer, he was cyber bullied by schoolmates who taunted him, thinking he was gay. Ryan was also bullied at school about this. His father was able to read all of the conversations on DeadAIM. Ryan had deliberately saved passages of online exchanges in which Ashley, a popular girl whom he had a crush on, pretended to like him. Later at school, she told him that he was a "loser". She had once been his friend and defended him when the bullying first started; when she became more popular in middle school, she left him behind. He found out she only pretended to like him only 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 the girl had called him a loser, Ryan said, "It's girls like you who make me want to kill myself."
His father also discovered some disturbing conversations between Ryan and another boy. Ryan had been talking with a pen-pal about suicide and death, and told him he was thinking about suicide. They had been telling each other things 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 Ryan told him he was thinking about suicide, two weeks before he killed himself. This was the last conversation he had with the pen-pal. Ryan's pen-pal was a boy Ryan knew up until third grade when the boy and his parents moved away. When they found each other online, they reconnected. The pen-pal had 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 penpal suggested suicide as a way out, writing, "If you killed yourself you would really make them feel bad." That boy was the worst possible friend that Ryan could have had at that time.
On October 7, 2003, John Halligan was away on business. Early in the morning, Ryan committed suicide by hanging himself. His body was found later by his older sister. Although Halligan left no suicide note, his father learned of the cyberbullying when he accessed his son's computer. He had checked his son's yearbook first and found the faces of the bullying group scribbled out. John Halligan accessed his son's computer and first learned of the cyber-bullying when his son's friends told him.
His father also discovered some disturbing conversations between Ryan and another boy. Ryan had been talking with a pen-pal about suicide and death, and told him he was thinking about suicide. They had been telling each other things 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 Ryan told him he was thinking about suicide, two weeks before he killed himself. This was the last conversation he had with the pen-pal. Ryan's pen-pal was a boy Ryan knew up until third grade when the boy and his parents moved away. When they found each other online, they reconnected. The pen-pal had 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 penpal suggested suicide as a way out, writing, "If you killed yourself you would really make them feel bad." That boy was the worst possible friend that Ryan could have had at that time.
On October 7, 2003, John Halligan was away on business. Early in the morning, Ryan committed suicide by hanging himself. His body was found later by his older sister. Although Halligan left no suicide note, his father learned of the cyberbullying when he accessed his son's computer. He had checked his son's yearbook first and found the faces of the bullying group scribbled out. John Halligan accessed his son's computer and first learned of the cyber-bullying when his son's friends told him.