As a small community northwest of Madison mourned the fatal shooting of its school principal, Madison School District Superintendent Art Rainwater on Friday said schools should watch out for bullies and keep lines of communication open to prevent similar violence.

"What you're trying to do is encourage what happened in Green Bay, where somebody comes forward to stop it," said Rainwater, referring to the alleged plot by two high school seniors and a recent graduate to kill students that was foiled this month when their friends told school officials.

In Sauk County on Friday, Weston High School principal John Klang was shot to death just before the start of classes.

In a criminal complaint, authorities accused a student, Eric Hainstock, in the slaying. The document says that Hainstock complained that he was picked on by other students and that school officials wouldn't do anything about it.

Whatever the truth of Hainstock's statements, Rainwater said, schools must be vigilant about knowing their students, trying to understand problems and stepping in as needed.

And students picking on other students is a red flag, he said.

"You try to create in your staff the sense of watching for bullying and harassment and shunning," Rainwater said.

"Those kinds of incidents among children can certainly anger kids, and you try to intervene in those cases."

Rainwater said the district does a "violence risk assessment" on children suspected of being a danger to themselves or others. Based on the results, they could be placed in a different setting to protect the safety of others while ensuring their right to an education, he said.

"You want to get help for the child and you want to prevent any kind of violent incidents from happening," he said.

Carol Carstensen, a Madison School Board member, described that decision-making process as a balancing act.

"We have an obligation to ensure that the child is provided services, and the environment (for others) is safe," she said.

As for physical security methods, the Madison School District doesn't use metal detectors but does have security guards and officers from the Madison Police Department assigned to each high school.

"There's no way to make people perfectly safe," Carstensen said. "The tradeoffs are so substantial that I don't think we would be willing to go that route in our society."