The widow of a slain high school principal speaks in favor of anti-bullying guidelines.
Sue Klang’s husband Weston High School Principal John Klang was murdered three years ago by a disgruntled student. Klang says if a curriculum like this had been in place years ago, her husband might be alive today — the bully might have had second thoughts, and those with knowledge of the bully might have stepped up.
“If we had it in schools and in place … there where several student that knew what Eric planned to do that day and said nothing.”
The gunman, 15-year-old Eric Hainstock, is currently serving a life sentence.
Fred Evert, Executive Director of the WEA Trust, says his insurance group is happy to be a part of the call to action to help prevent bullying.
“We believe that bullying is a serious public health issue. To be healthy schools, schools must be safe.”
Evert says WEA Trust is covering the $15,000 cost to provide the curriculum to every public elementary and middle school in Wisconsin’s 426 districts for free, irrespective of whether they have WEA Trust as their health insurer.
Superintendent Tony Evers says according to a DPI survey this year, over 20 percent of students say they were bullied at school in the previous year. Evers says 250 school districts used a previous version of the program that got under way in February of 2007. He says the second phase, which includes text messages, emails and cyber bullying, is available to start immediately.