IRVINE- A UC Irvine professor was arrested for arson and is being held without bail by police because of emails he sent detailing an armed attack on University High School, where his 14-year old son attended before he committed suicide.
“It was a terrible thing that Claas felt like he had to kill himself…but that still does not excuse what his dad did,” said University High student Ryan Nicholson. “Threatening school officials and burning the school is not going to help bring his son back.”
Rainer Klaus Reinscheid,48, an associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences who received his PhD in biology, seemed deeply saddened after his son Claas Stubbe hanged himself at a local park after being disciplined for stealing from University High’s student store.
Later, sadness turned to apparent rage towards the school and the assistant principal who was in charge of disciplining his son. Reinscheid has been charged with eight counts of felony arson, setting two fires at University High, three at the assistant principal’s home and three at the park where his son committed suicide.
In the emails, Reinscheid allegedly spoke of obtaining firearms and shooting Uni High students before killing himself, according to court documents. He also outlined plans to kill and sexually assault specific faculty members whom he believed wronged him by unjustly disciplining his son.
Nicolson, who shared a science class with Claas, stated that, “People were always picking on him and I don’t know why.” Milad Koosha, another Uni High student, said that Claas was not really noticed in school and that he did not have many friends.
“Who would want to go to school every day knowing that there would always be someone making fun of you…No one should have to go through that,” said Nicholson.
After Claas’s suicide, Uni High was in a state of mourning for one of its own. “[When I heard the news] I couldn’t wrap my head around it…We always hear stuff about this but I had never thought that something like this would ever happen so close to me,” said rising sophomore Zilin Zhou. “It was something like a reality check I guess.”
Jay Choi
Jay Choi is a junior at Beckman High and a new editor for the Spring Semester. An avid musician, he enjoys playing the clarinet and saxophone and listening to all types of music. He spends his free time hanging out with his friends and playing improvised jazz solos. He hopes to make a positive contribution to JSR and looks forward to the semester.
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This was an interesting article. While it was depressing that his son committed suicide, it doesn’t justify his actions which could have been worse.
Wow. Right when I started reading this article, I was so interested in it. You kept it short and decent and you still covered every information nicely and had quotes to back up your information. Every information written in the article is balanced up. The story isn’t all over the place so it sounds really nice. 😀
This is such a powerful issue and a distressing thing to talk about, and you handled that very well. Your ability to tell this story is amazing – and I think that given the nature of the article, you’ve done a good job of presenting all sides. Good work!