When John Halligan lost his son, Ryan, 13, to suicide in October 2003 he knew he had missed some signs.
He's never going to let that happen again.
"I want to give you information I wish my wife and I had," Mr. Halligan, 50, told a crowd of dozens during a presentation in the West Scranton High School auditorium on Tuesday night as part of the school's Anti-Bullying Week program.
Since 2003, Mr. Halligan has been working to educate and inform students and parents about the effects of bullying, cyber-bullying and teen depression so other parents do not have to go through what he and his family experienced when his son took his own life.
Mr. Halligan stressed the importance of remaining vigilant about your child's Internet activity.
After Ryan died, Mr. Halligan said he decided to check his son's computer, which the teen had used unchecked by his parents, and found folders of chat conversations that showed Ryan had been mercilessly bullied in school and on the Internet.
"As I started to read the material, my heart started to break into a million pieces all over again," Mr. Halligan told the audience.
While Tuesday evening's presentation was aimed primarily at parents, a presentation held earlier in the day by Mr. Halligan for students brought more than a few tears, faculty member and school anti-bullying committee member Amy Rummerfield said.
"We all went back to our classrooms and spoke with my students afterwards and they all wanted to share what they had been feeling while he was speaking," she said. "Several of them said that he was the best speaker we had ever had."
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