Eric

Try the BEST MySpace Editor and MySpace Backgrounds at MySpace Toolbox !
“Eric Hainstock was the most picked on person in the whole school”.
Eric Jordan Hainstock is an abandoned, abused, & bullied 15 year old boy who has been charged as an adult with First Degree Intentional Homicide for allegedly shooting his school principal. If he is convicted in adult court, he will face life imprisonment. Although Eric had “special needs” at Weston High School, and was working at below grade level even after repeating a grade, he is in the 75th percentile. Not in class rank, but in the class of young perpetrators who had suffered severe, ongoing bullying before they committed an act of violence against their school. It has been reported that the resultant emotional damage had a significant impact on the attackers and was a key factor in their decision to strike out against their school. Yes, Eric fits snuggly into that 75% category of abused, neglected children who have committed three-quarters of the school shootings. Eric claims he brought the weapons to school to get someone to listen to him. Since dead people can’t listen, murder didn’t seem to be his intention. In a desperate attempt to stop the bullying he used the threat of a gun. Eric’s plan went chaotically wrong that day. As guns will often do, instead of getting someone to listen, they got someone killed.
Not only was Eric severely bullied and preyed on at school every day from a young age, he was abandoned by his mother, abused by his father and step-mother and neglected at home. Family members have said Eric was bullied at school and abused at home. He had no where to turn, he could do nothing right. They said Eric raised himself. His father, Shawn Hainstock doled out unorthodox, humiliating punishments. Hot peppers and hot pepper sauce was forced down Eric’s throat, induced physical exhaustion such as forced running, being forced to stand in prolonged torturous positions. Also, Eric was beaten with belts and other objects; he was bitten, denied after school snacks and seconds at dinner, and was living in filthy conditions at home including animal excrement and clutter at fire hazard proportions. He was left home alone for entire weekends to watch the house at the age of 12. Although Shawn Hainstock claims total disability since age 25 yet, he beats and wrestles Eric to the ground to pour hot sauce down his throat, plays horseshoes at the local bars and hauls Amish on a regular basis. Even though totally disabled, Shawn Hainstock kicked Eric so severely when Eric was 10 years old, he was charged with Felony Child Abuse. The charges were eventually expunged and life went on as usual for Shawn and Eric Hainstock. No follow up by the courts or social services agencies. The charge was dropped, but the abuse never stopped. The deferred prosecution paved the way for a violent Shawn Hainstock, capable of severe child abuse, to legally own guns. The judge who fixed a three-quarter million dollar bond on Eric, is the same judge who didn't investigate the "innuendo" of child abuse when Eric was a toddler. How ironic.
A sophomore classmate of Eric’s was quoted in the Madison State Journal saying that “Eric Hainstock was the most picked on person in the whole school”. She also claimed Eric often smelled of smoke, wore the same clothes for days, had greasy hair and appeared to not shower on a daily basis, seemingly justification for ganging up on and bullying a fellow student. Premeditated destruction of a fellow student. A family member has said a teacher at the high school made fun of Eric in front of the whole class during roll call when he asked Eric if he was the Special Needs Kid. Eric asked his aunt when he told her about it, “Why did he have to say that? Apparently this teacher deserves the “Rotten-Apple Award”. The is also the teacher who after Eric was down and cuffed continuously slammed Eric’s face into the concrete floor every time he tried to move his head breaking his glasses and giving him a black eye. It is clearly visible in his arrest photo. The police had to drag the teacher off of Eric. This teacher also defended his “jock” students calling Eric the bully not the “jocks” who amused themselves by referring to Eric as “fag” and faggot”. In fact counter to what one of Eric’s classmates said above, Eric’s special needs teacher, Mr. Nowak, said that it was a "crock" that Eric was bullied and in fact he was the bully. But the statistics don't bear that out. The bully is never the one responsible for the school shootings.
School authorities and the community seem to be in complete denial about the bullying of Eric Hainstock. All the signs were there. Teachers and school administrators would have had to be deaf, dumb and blind to have missed this child at risk, based on the other school shootings across the country. Eric cracked when he threw the stapler at this special needs teacher, but instead of heeding those warnings of a bullied child, frustrated student reaching the end of his rope, the students started calling Eric psycho. Does it really surprise anyone that this school has now become a statistic? Does it surprise anyone that like Columbine, everyone in the community is in denial?
This is a horrible tragedy. Mr. Klang was a wonderful person from all accounts and didn’t deserve this nor did his family. Mr. Klang was the victim of a child who was abused, neglected and severely bullied his entire life both at home and at school. Eric in turn was the victim of irresponsible adults. The dangerous bully predators had a very negative effect on this one picked-on child and in effect pushed him over the edge contributing to this preventable tragedy. When will the bullies be held accountable? Do they feel the appropriate amount of guilt? Will the school face up to what really happened here? Will they have the courage to seek the truth? Will they go for revenge against this child? Does justice come in the form of vengeance?
Eric should be tried as a juvenile in Juvenile Court so he receives treatment and rehabilitation not revenge and retribution. Vengence is not justice. A productive society works to heal. The victim’s legacy should not be the destruction of a child’s life in prison, but a rebirth of that child through rehabilitation and care. What better legacy to serve the memory of an educator.