Monday, October 02, 2006

What hate causes

Principal Shot, Killed In Rural Wisconsin School
Rhonda Erskine, AP

A teenager brought two guns to his rural school and shot the principal to death Friday after a struggle with adults and other students, authorities said.

The 15-year-old was taken into custody and charged with first-degree intentional homicide, the district attorney said. No one else was hurt.

The homecoming weekend shooting comes one day after Weston Schools Principal John Klang gave the student, Eric Hainstock, a disciplinary warning for having tobacco on school grounds, the criminal complaint said.

Hainstock had told a friend the principal would not "make it through homecoming," the complaint said.

Hainstock said that a group of kids had teased him by calling him "fag" and "faggot" and rubbing up against him, the complaint said, and the teen felt teachers and the principal wouldn't do anything about it.

So Hainstock decided to confront students, teachers and the principal with the guns to make them listen to him, according to the complaint.

So Friday morning, he pried open his family's gun cabinet, took out a shotgun and then took a handgun from his parent's bedroom, the complaint said.

The complaint said he shot the principal intentionally 3 times.

The shooting took place two days after a gunman took 6 students hostage in a Colorado high school and killed one before shooting himself.

A custodian and teacher saw Hainstock enter Weston School with a shotgun before classes began Friday morning, according to witnesses
and investigators. Hainstock pointed the gun at a social studies teacher, but the custodian wrested the gun from the teen. When Hainstock reached for another gun, the custodian and teacher ran for cover.

Then Klang went into the main hallway and confronted Hainstock. A teacher said after the shots were fired, Klang, already wounded, somehow wrestled Hainstock to the ground and swept the gun away, the complaint said.

The 49-year-old principal died Friday afternoon at University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison after being shot in the back of the head, chest and leg, authorities said. An autopsy was scheduled for Saturday.

Sauk County Sheriff Randy Stammen called Klang a hero after announcing his death.

"The heroics of the people involved in this can't be understated," he said.

The school's homecoming football game, dance and parade were canceled or postponed, and crisis counselors were brought in for students, authorities said.

Hainstock could get life in prison if convicted, District Attorney Patricia Barrett said. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty.

Detectives were executing a search warrant at Hainstock's house late Friday, Stammen said. The teen was scheduled to make an initial appearance in Sauk County Circuit Court on Monday afternoon.

About 370 children from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade attend the school near Cazenovia, a community about 70 miles northwest of Madison.

Klang and his 3 children graduated from Weston School. Klang taught, then farmed for about 18 years before returning to teaching and taking over as principal in 2004, his father Don Klang said. He was being groomed to take over the superintendent position next year.

Custodian Dave Thompson said that when he saw Hainstock enter the building early Friday, the student said he was there to kill someone.

"He was calm, but he was on a mission," said Thompson, 43, who has two children at the school.

Sophomore Shelly Rupp said she heard 5 shots and ran out of the school, but turned around and saw Klang as he was shot.

"He was laying on the ground in the hallway," the 16-year-old said at a nearby gas station where students and townspeople gathered following the shooting. "He had just a pile of blood by his leg."

School officials said Klang has more than 20 years of experience with the district, beginning as a school board member, and described him as kind, compassionate and soft-spoken.

Resident Laurie Rhea, 42, said Klang had spent last weekend at the gas station washing cars for a homecoming fundraiser.

"It's horrible. All the kids just loved him," she said.~End Article


Commentary: First of all the act of forcably dry humping is akin to rape, and was probably committed in front a a group of laughing, geering peers. It is no stretch to imagine that a mind that is not fully developed may see this as an act worthy of war, especially when teachers don't take the student's feelings seriously. Secondly, this society has demonized the gay community so badly that to be put into this catagory by your peers is a social death sentance.

The other John on this site had this to say: "The worst of it is that teasing and bullying is flat out condoned by anti-gay groups:

'On the contrary, don't interfere, and let the other children ridicule the child who has lost that clear boundary between play-acting at home and the reality needs of the outside world.'

Maybe, in this way, the child will re-establish that necessary boundary.'"

http://www.exgaywatch.com/blog/archives/2006/08/narth_scientifi.html

If you practice such teachings you should consider yourself as responsible for this child's actions as if you had pulled the trigger yourself. Hatred leads to violence, and it is the opposite of what Christ calls us to do. How many times does this have to happen before people put an end to discrimination?!

5 comments:

RedStateExile said...

You know for all of the positive attitudes that I've read about in high school with higher acceptance of gays, that doesn't mean that kids aren't tormented and harassed. Some have the strength to get through it. Some don't. If they don't take it out on someone else, they'll take it out on themselves with suicide. Unfortunately, I taught a kid like this. He tried to laugh it off, but you could see the pain in his eyes.

John Hosty said...

http://www.amishabuse.com/

So much hypocracy and hatred

John Hosty said...

I really should look more carefully. Good to see you Callie.

RedStateExile said...

"The Florida measure says any person "has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm."

Perhaps these fundies need to consider that we can use laws like this to our benefit just as much as they can. I don't believe in killing anyone, but I'd do what I had to to protect my family.

John Hosty said...

We have to start drawing more attention to the seriousness of this problem. We can't allow society to continue putting itself and us in harms way. Hatred is not an American value.