On Tuesday, the graduating students ran out for the last time from the high school in central Malmö, which has been theirs for three years.
Nothing, except a few dried flowers hanging on the schoolyard fence, is reminiscent of the deed that occurred here on a Monday in March.
The staff was thrown into a heavy crisis management. The student union arranged memorial services. Current and old students met and mingled with people from all over Malmö who came to share their dismay.
The following Monday, the school reopened and a shocked group of staff and students returned in grief, having nevertheless decided to take back their workplace and school. Deputy principal Birgitta Moberg talks about a difficult balancing act.
– We wanted to instill hope in our students. Show that life goes on, but that you can still preserve the fond memories of your teachers and your study time. We wanted to come back, we have students and staff here who love their school. That is what we realized, that it is that love and pride that must be our way back.
Next to her is her colleague Peter Hernqvist, also the deputy principal. Both testify to a revolutionary time after the deed, which was difficult but also fine and dignified.
– Our students have been absolutely fantastic. Respectful. And our staff, everyone takes great care of each other, says Birgitta Moberg.
– We have also seen how a crisis brings people together. This was not just a Malmö Latin event. The whole city became involved, says Peter Hernqvist.
Inside the small meeting room it is calm and quiet, unlike the atmosphere that prevails outside. It’s in the middle of lunch. In the dining room, it is loud and lively, just as it usually is in a school dining room.
– You get so happy to see that it is a bit common, says Birgitta Moberg.
– Yes, to hear the students sitting and laughing in the dining room, it’s nice. If you go through school here on a normal day, it can be a slide show in one place, a lunch concert in one place, a musical in the auditorium at the same time and then a play is played elsewhere. This living thing, it takes over, says Peter Hernqvist.
Even though the joy has returned, there are very many students and teachers who have received support calls and continue to receive it.
It was two years since the last time a kick-off was planned at one of Malmö’s upper secondary schools. Those who take the student now have had a special, and to say the least challenging high school time.
– They have had some difficult years. First the pandemic, and now this, says Birgitta Moberg and refers to the act.
– Those who go out now, they have been sitting at home at least half the time, it has been tough, says Peter Hernqvist.
At the school, they have been careful to plan and provide space for the students’ traditions – gatherings, spex and games. Towards the end of school, they have introduced another tradition due to the school act.
– We have instituted two scholarships in memory of our teachers. The scholarships will bear their names. It feels good. Many scholarships usually go to the best, but a scholarship will go to someone who has struggled with something they have found difficult, says Birgitta Moberg.
– She was known for it, to really bet that all students will be able to do it, that everyone would get the same chance, says Peter Hernqvist.
– To honor the other teacher who was very committed to society, the second scholarship will be about human values, to pay tribute to a social commitment. It will go to students who have shown it in different ways, says Birgitta Moberg:
– These scholarships will be awarded every year. Now we have students who remember the teachers. In a number of years, no one has had them and then the memory of them lives on in the form of these scholarships.
The next day meet Malmö Latin school all “threes” in Slottsparken. Large speakers pump out music that is barely heard from all the loud laughter. Students from different classes shout to gather, the games will start soon.
– We are so grateful that we can have this party and this student time together, we did not know if there would be anything, says Edith Aldgård.
For Lykke Christensen, who had lessons with one of the deceased teachers three times a week, the emotions go in waves. The student will be the best day of life but also the hardest.
– She would have stood there with me, she was the most important for me to have on my student. But then you have to think that she is in my heart, she looks at us as well and will always be there for us. She would like us to have fun. There was not a man who lived as much as she, I hear her voice in my head: “Just drive!” She had stood off the platform and jumped with us. It’s awful that it will not happen, but I will always have that image with me.
They both think it feels different at school, but have chosen not to stick to just the difficult memories.
– I do not want to look back on my high school years and think that the attack affected my high school years, says Edith Aldgård firmly:
– For my high school years is mine and no one should be allowed to ruin it for me, but then you will always remember it. It will always be there.
She is silent before continuing:
– It is a great injustice. That two families have now lost their loved ones in this way. It is important for me to say that another thing we take with us from this time is love and fellowship.
Her friend Lykke Christensen says that she does not really want to leave Latin now.
– We all went together and it’s a shame that something so horrible should happen for that to happen, but the community we have had, and the love that exists at school now.
But soon you run out.
– It feels good, but it’s also like I do not want to take the student, says Lykke Christensen.
– You want to take the student, but you do not want to quit Latin! It is. That must be the final word, says Edith Aldgård and runs into a game.
Facts. The school act at Malmö Latin
On Monday, March 21, the police received an alarm about a suspected serious crime at a high school in Malmö. Two women in their 50s, both of whom were teachers at the school, were injured and taken to hospital. Later that evening, the police announced that the two women had died. An 18-year-old man was arrested the same day and is in custody on suspicion of the murders.
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