On Thursday, January 29, Southern Lehigh High School students gathered in the auditorium for an assembly on bullying. As students filed in, a slideshow of a young boy and his family flashed across the projector screen. A few moments later, high school principal Mrs. Christine Siegfried asked for all students to give their attention to the guest speaker, Mr. John Halligan.

“We decided on Ryan’s Story because we felt his story was one that our student body and community could really relate to,” Mrs. Siegfried said.

After introducing himself, Mr. Halligan explained he was here to tell the story of his son, Ryan, who committed suicide in 2003 when he was only 13 years old.

“I thought it was going to be the typical bullying assembly where they tell you to be nice to everyone,” senior Cooper Nagle said. “I was surprised when Mr. Halligan walked on stage told us he was going to talk about his son.”

He told the story of his son who struggled with bullying since he was in fifth grade, just as he had finally overcome a severe language development delay. Ryan was bullied by a boy in his class as well as a few of that boy’s friends. When Ryan was in seventh grade, this teasing culminated into malicious rumors that Ryan was gay. His parents knew about the torment taking place but assumed it stopped when Ryan no longer talked about it. It turns out, the bullying continued all through the summer between seventh and eighth grade. The morning of October 7, 2003, while Mr. Halligan was on a business trip, he received his wife’s call that Ryan had killed himself. That day changed his and his family’s life forever.

Since Ryan did not leave a suicide note, Mr. Halligan wanted to search for answers about his son’s death. He found a folder on the computer that contained copies of all of Ryan’s AIM (instant messaging) chats. There he found out about the bullying, rumors, and schoolmates that started it all. Ryan had spent much of that summer chatting and building a relationship with a female classmate.  However, when they returned to school in the fall, the girl told him that it was a joke, and she pretended to like him to find out personal information which she shared with her friends.  Ryan was devastated, and ended his life not long afterward.

Mr. Halligan was so upset by the cruel events leading to his son’s death, that he wanted to take action. After discovering that there was no law to deal with this level of bullying, he took steps that resulted in the passing of Vermont’s Bully Prevention Law – Act 117, “an act relating to teaching signs of and responses to depression and risk of suicide in public schools.”

Mr. Halligan has used this tragedy to help educate people on how to help others who are being bullied and the effects of peers terrorizing each other. He has been telling Ryan’s story for over ten years now and has been to over 1,000 schools in 40 states, Columbia, Mexico, and Canada. He has also appeared on televised interviews on Primetime with Diane Sawyer, PBS Frontline, and Oprah.

“I thought he was a very good public speaker especially since it was something so personal and probably really hard to talk about,” senior Maddie Hallman said.

In addition to speaking to students, Mr. Halligan also held an assembly in the evening for parents to learn about strategies to help their children cope with harassment. He hopes to educate other parents by explaining his own mistakes with Ryan.

“The parent program focused on specific things that parents could do to monitor their child’s behavior as well as have open discussions with them about bullying,” Mrs. Siegfried said.

Many students agree that this assembly is something they will remember for the rest of their lives. It is one thing to hear facts and statistics, but the heart wrenching first-hand account surely changed perspectives.

“ I believe that every one of us walked away from that assembly with something that resonated with us in regards to bullying and it’s negative effects,” Mrs. Siegfried said. “I encourage our students to make the culture of our school one that is positive and respectful.”

The American Justice Department bullying statistics show that one out of every four kids will be bullied sometime throughout their adolescence. Southern Lehigh is aware that bullying is an issue in the school system. In order to help control this issue, the Student Assistance Program (SAP) is in place.

SAP is made up of specially trained school staff who are capable of helping to remove possible barriers of student success. If anyone is concerned about a fellow classmate dealing with bullying or any other serious issues, SAP forms can be found in all classrooms and turned into the guidance office.

For more information about the Halligan family and bullying prevention, students are encouraged to visit www.ryansstory.org.