10/7/11 – A state appeals court ruled Thursday that a Sauk County high school student was properly convicted in Wisconsin’s most notorious act of school violence in recent years. Eric Hainstock said he was forced to confess that he shot-and-killed Weston High School principal John Klang in a school corridor in Cazenovia in 2006. But even if he was coerced, the Fourth District Appellate Court in Madison said there was enough other evidence to convict Hainstock. His classmates quoted him as saying that Klang would not survive the school’s homecoming that weekend. And a custodian said Hainstock told him he was there to kill someone. Hainstock was 15 at the time of the incident. It was one of three school shootings throughout the nation in the same week – and it prompted former President George W. Bush to call a summit on dealing with school violence. The Weston district later received federal funds which help schools boost security, and provide things like mental health evaluations to solve problems caused by a traumatic event. During his trial, Hainstock’s lawyers claimed he was bullied – and his teachers and school officials in Cazenovia did nothing about it.
