After the school act: Crisis workers in every classroom

Finland is in mourning the day after the school shooting in Vantaa outside Helsinki.

The question marks pile up after a twelve-year-old is shot to death by a classmate.

On Wednesday, flags fly at half-mast at Finland’s public buildings and institutions. Outside the affected school, the pile of flowers, candles and stuffed animals is growing.

The school is open, but the day is shorter than usual. In each classroom, there is at least one crisis worker on site when the school day begins.

– We hope that the families discuss the events at home and that we can then continue the discussion at school, says Ilkka Kalo, head of primary school in Vanta, to Svenska EPN.

Planned and raw

Two 6th grade students are still being treated for very serious injuries after Tuesday morning’s shooting, Finnish media reports. One of the injured is a girl from Kosovo, according to the Kosovo Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The crime was planned and carried out in an extremely crude and cruel manner, the police stated at a press conference hours after the crime. According to Finnish media, the perpetrator was wearing a mask and headphones during the shooting.

But the motive and background to the act – and how such a young student could come over and use a weapon – is still surrounded by question marks.

Social services take over

The suspected perpetrator, a twelve-year-old, was in the same class as his victims. The shooter was arrested less than an hour after the shooting with a handgun on him and confessed to the crime during initial questioning with police. The weapon is said to have belonged to a close relative.

As the suspect is a child under the age of fifteen, and therefore not criminally responsible, the case will not go to trial. The child is instead handed over to social authorities, Finnish media reports.