Attacked school set to reopen next week
UPDATED: Teachers and other staff at a Swedish school where two people were killed in a sword attack are receiving psychological help as they prepare to reopen the school to pupils next week.
Staff are still struggling to recover after last week's fatal attack at the Kronan school in Trollhättan in western Sweden, which left one of their pupils and another of their colleagues dead.
“We're going to have a moment together [today] with opportunities for talking and debriefing. Psychologists are going to be there and hopefully the police as well,” Birgitta Lindström Sundefors, Trollhättan council's head of education, told the TT newswire on Monday morning.
On Thursday, 21-year-old Trollhättan native Anton Lundin Pettersson rampaged through the school, stabbing two people to death and seriously wounding two others before being fatally shot by police.
Authorities are calling it a racist hate crime. Many of the school’s students are immigrants and Pettersson methodically attacked dark-skinned individuals.
Lindström Sundefors said that the around 80 people working at Kronan are coping with the tragic and rare school attack in different ways. But it has left them all shocked and devastated.
“How the staff feel varies [from person to person]. It's on a scale from bad to really awful,” she said.
Still considered a crime scene, the school remained cordoned off on Monday. But the local authority hopes children will be able to return to the building next week. Psychologists are set to be on site to provide help for pupils.
“What has happened is absolutely horrible and nothing anyone could have planned for,” said Lindström Sundefors.
She spoke a day after thousands gathered across Sweden to observe a moment of silence to remember the victims.
Family members of the 20-year-old teaching assistant, Lavin Eskandar, killed when he reportedly threw himself in harm's way to protect his pupils, were among those gathered.
"He saved your children, be proud of him," said the slain man's mother.
"We are all Swedes," Eskandar's cousin added. "We must stick together and teach our children what really matters."
Later in the evening a torchlight procession passed by the school, where burning torches had been set up in the outline of a large heart.
READ ALSO: Moment of silence for school attack victims
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Staff are still struggling to recover after last week's fatal attack at the Kronan school in Trollhättan in western Sweden, which left one of their pupils and another of their colleagues dead.
“We're going to have a moment together [today] with opportunities for talking and debriefing. Psychologists are going to be there and hopefully the police as well,” Birgitta Lindström Sundefors, Trollhättan council's head of education, told the TT newswire on Monday morning.
On Thursday, 21-year-old Trollhättan native Anton Lundin Pettersson rampaged through the school, stabbing two people to death and seriously wounding two others before being fatally shot by police.
Authorities are calling it a racist hate crime. Many of the school’s students are immigrants and Pettersson methodically attacked dark-skinned individuals.
Lindström Sundefors said that the around 80 people working at Kronan are coping with the tragic and rare school attack in different ways. But it has left them all shocked and devastated.
“How the staff feel varies [from person to person]. It's on a scale from bad to really awful,” she said.
Still considered a crime scene, the school remained cordoned off on Monday. But the local authority hopes children will be able to return to the building next week. Psychologists are set to be on site to provide help for pupils.
“What has happened is absolutely horrible and nothing anyone could have planned for,” said Lindström Sundefors.
She spoke a day after thousands gathered across Sweden to observe a moment of silence to remember the victims.
Family members of the 20-year-old teaching assistant, Lavin Eskandar, killed when he reportedly threw himself in harm's way to protect his pupils, were among those gathered.
"He saved your children, be proud of him," said the slain man's mother.
"We are all Swedes," Eskandar's cousin added. "We must stick together and teach our children what really matters."
Later in the evening a torchlight procession passed by the school, where burning torches had been set up in the outline of a large heart.
READ ALSO: Moment of silence for school attack victims
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