School shooting in Finland

The suspect in the fatal shooting at a vocational school in Kauhajoki, Finland is pictured in this frame grab made from footage posted on the YouTube website. Photograph: Reuters

As Finland reacted in horror to the shooting by a student at a vocational college in Kauhajoki, now known to have claimed eleven lives, teachers and officials were asking what more could have been done, despite a flurry of initiatives following a shooting less than a year before at Jokela High School which killed eight.

Officials had described Finland's first major school shooting at Jokela high school last November as an isolated incident.

Nonetheless, the government reacted swiftly, putting special student welfare teams into schools and colleges, including at Kauhajoki's college for home and institutional economics - the location of the latest shooting.

"We already had the experience (of Jokela) and this time the help was available immediately," said Anita Lehikoinen, director of higher education at the Finnish ministry of education. "There were major efforts made to support schools and the school community and to help young people to feel safe in schools. We also sent a letter to all the rectors of polytechnics and colleges to update their safety regulations and to pay special attention to student welfare."

She insisted the college where the shooting took place was not to blame.

"The institution had taken all the action. They had a multi-professional team of psychologists, social workers in the community, and also a pastor. But still we saw this kind of tragedy take place," Lehikoinen said.

The government today announced extra financial help for the region, to help train youth workers, community workers and even parish priests to reach out to young people.

Although Matti Saari, 22, a student at the college, was a young adult, Lehikoinen said even in higher education there was a close relationship between students and staff, "particularly at this institution, which is a very small one".

"There is always the question of whether there enough [welfare] services are available. But at this institution we think this was not a problem.

"With multi-professional teams in place we think the help could have been there," Lehikoinen said.

However, as a vocational student, about a third of Saari's time was spent in the workplace. A recent European Union study said workplace bullying was more common in Finland than in any other EU country with Finns twice as likely to report harassment than workers in other European countries.

Bullying was also an issue in the case of Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who carried out the Jokela shooting.

Meanwhile interior minister Anne Holmlund said the perpetrator was questioned by police the day before the shooting, regarding videos posted in recent weeks on YouTube showing him firing a pistol, but no further steps were thought to be necessary.

Holmlund said she would step up efforts to draft amendments in the country's firearms law. "It goes without saying that one must analyse carefully what has happened and what sorts of changes may serve to prevent these kinds of situations from happening," Holmlund said.

Teachers and officials were searching for clues of a systemic problem in society as education minister Sari Sarkomaa, interior minister Holmlund, and minister of health and social services Paula Risikko met in emergency session to discuss the Kauhajoki shooting.

Lehikoinen said the government would be looking at wider issues in society such as greater individualism, and would look to fostering a spirit of community in schools and colleges.

"There is now a major emphasis in community-building in schools," she said.

After the Jokela incident, cuts in funding for psychological services and social support in recent years were criticised. The shooting had been a wake-up call, and local level collaboration between support services had already increased since then, teachers in Finland said.

"Jokela made teachers more sensitive to student problems. In a very general way it made teachers more alert," said Jarkko Hautamäki, professor of special education at the University of Helsinki.

At first glance, the two incidents do not seem similar. "The present shooter is a young adult, and so we cannot say the teachers are responsible," Hautamäki said.

"These are random encounters that cannot be prevented by any specific policy. They are difficult to anticipate and to be able to monitor in any way."

But media reports have stressed the rising use of the internet among young people and its pernicious influence. Jorma Lempinen, of the Finnish Association of School Principals, said: "There is a great deal of discussion. Parents say our children are not out on the streets, they are not doing drugs or alcohol, they are at home and we believed they were secure. It is now the opposite, and young people are now unsafe even at home because of the internet?"

Few answers were immediately evident as Finland was digesting the enormity of the latest shooting.

"Both the incident in Jokela and the present incident are very surprising to us. It is very difficult to understand why young people should feel so miserable as to do such desperate acts," Hautamäki said.

"We have precise and very good plans of what to do in an emergency since the Jokela incident. But these only tackle what is happening afterwards. Teachers are discussing and wondering how do we tackle the problems before they occur," Lempinen said.

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Shung said:

I am affraid that for the 2n time in one year, this will affect the finish laws about firearms... Which are with Switzerland laws, the better in europe at the moment..

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Please explain, or write so I can understand the sentences, thanks.

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Finland's prime minister has called for gun laws to be tightened after a school shooting that left 11 people dead.

Matti Vanhanen said he believed handguns should no longer be used outside shooting ranges.

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