John and Kelly Halligan lost their thirteen year old son, Ryan, to suicide on October 7, 2003.

At the time of his death, Ryan was a student at a middle school in Essex Junction, Vermont.

After Ryan’s death, it was revealed that he was ridiculed and humiliated by peers at school and on-line, (Cyberbullying)



After Ryan had passed away his father John Halligan check his lost son's IM account where he had spent most ofhis time leaing up to his suicide and discovered that Ryan had been a Victim of Cyberbullying and because of that he had committed Suicide. The main Bully of this situation had recently become one of Ryan's close friends, and Ryan had told him a embarrassing and funny story because he was a bit of a comedian but the bully took that information and spread it around to all of Ryan's friends that Ryan had something done to him therefore he must be gay. This rumour spread like wildfire around to all of Ryan's friends who then started picking on him, this then led to Ryan's suicide.