Schools Subject to Copycat Threats

According to the newspaper Savon Sanomat, schools in 18 localities have been threatened with shootings or bombings since the Jokela tragedy last November.

Thousands of pupils have been evacuated from schools or warned to stay away at times as a result of the threats.

In most cases, the threats have been posted online as videos or in Internet chat rooms, but there have also been incidences of threats written on school walls and desks. Most of the threats were made by 14 to 16 year-old boys as a hoax.

Local police have filed almost all of the threats with the office of national prosecutor for consideration of charges. So far charges have been brought in court in one case in the city of Lappeenranta.

In November eight pupils and staff died in a shooting spree by a student at the Jokela School in the municipality of Tuusula north of Helsinki.

The Jokela shooting was the most serious crime of violence ever committed in a Finnish school.