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But his special education teacher told the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison in Sunday’s editions that he didn’t think Hainstock was the victim.
“He wasn’t picked on,” James Nowak said. “He was the one who would have picked on people.”
Hainstock was charged Friday as an adult with first-degree intentional homicide in Sauk County for allegedly shooting to death Weston High School principal John Klang. Hainstock has a bail hearing set for today.
Hainstock told police he gunned down Klang before classes Friday because he was upset with a reprimand Klang had given him, according to a criminal complaint. He was facing an in-school suspension for having tobacco in school Thursday, the criminal complaint said.
He also told police he was upset because he felt teachers didn’t stop students who harassed him, including rubbing up against him and calling him “fag” and “faggot.”
Nowak, who said he’d been Hainstock’s teacher for a year or two, said teachers stand up for special education students as much as possible.
“We are advocates for the kids,” he said. “If they are being picked on, we try to stop it.”
A woman who answered the phone Sunday at the Nowak residence told The Associated Press that they were not talking to the media.
Eric Schneider, 14, an eighth-grader at Weston, first met Hainstock when he was in kindergarten and Hainstock was in first grade in Reedsburg.
Schneider said people picked on Hainstock a lot, but he also picked on kids and would fight with other children. “Eric dished it out and went after other people,” he said.
Schneider said that he last saw Hainstock at the end of his eighth-hour social studies class Thursday. That’s when Klang came to talk to Hainstock.
“I always thought he got along with Mr. Klang. If Eric had trouble, they would talk, and things would get better,” he said.
Nowak said Hainstock was initially placed in the special education program because he was thought to have a learning disability.
“Later it became an emotional and behavioral situation,” Nowak said.
Nowak said that about two weeks ago the student swore at him and threw a stapler at him.
“He said something to me and scared me,” Nowak said. “I backed out of the room and got out of there and ran. The stapler flew past my head and hit the wall. He had the stapler open — it cracked the cement.”
Police were called, and they released Hainstock to his father, Nowak said.
