Influencer Katariina Juselius was hiding in home economics class when the Jokela school killings happened.
Katariina Juselius has participated in the Miss Finland competition in 2019 and 2021. MIKKO HUISKO
In November 2007, a school shooting occurred in Jokela school center, in which nine people died in total, including the shooter himself.
Fresh from Roope Salminen Three turning points In the episode of the podcast, the influencer Katariina Juselius, who twice participated in the Miss Suomi competition, recalls tragic events, because she was a student at the Jokela school center. Juselius was 13 years old at the time of the incident.
At the beginning of the episode, Juselius recalls how on November 7 he opened the door for the principal when he arrived at the school. The principal and Juselius greet each other at the school doors, as is part of good manners.
– Later that day, the headmaster died pretty much exactly under the window where I was in the class, Juselius states seriously.
Juselius says that he himself did not directly see shooting situations, blood or high school students Pekka-Eric from Auvis, who was later found guilty of the shootings. He says he heard shots.
Juselius says that his childhood ended with the school shootings in Jokela. After that, she started to focus on school, because she had to become a “girl in her twenties”. ATTE KAJOVA
Juselius was in home economics class at the time of the incident. He remembers the principal announcing that no one is allowed to leave the classroom or open windows or doors.
– At the time, it was thought that this would be a gas explosion, that poisonous gas would enter the classroom. We were just joking. I saw from the window that students are running away from the school and some are kicking. We began to think that maybe something serious had happened. Soon we already received messages that there had been a shooting at the school, Juselius recalls in the episode.
Juselius says that Auvisen fired shots below their class, after which he had moved to the canteen. The canteen was located about 15 meters from the class where Juselius was at the time of the incident.
– In the end, he shot himself in the toilet next to our class. We were evacuated, we ran right past it by a couple of meters. Yes, it happened very close, but fortunately still so far away, he says in the podcast.
“I got off easy”
Juselius describes that his childhood ended with the school massacre in Jokela, because the situation was so traumatizing.
– I don’t think about myself, but about my parents, because I am their only child. There, all the lines were crossed and they were waiting for me outside the school. There was a parent waiting next to them in the yard who never got their child back.
Roope Salminen hosts the Three Turning Points podcast. Miia Sirén
– I think it’s horrible to think that some children or mothers never came back from there. I also think about my own parents if I had died. Would they ever have gotten over it? Juselius states, crying.
Juselius says that many of the school’s students and teachers were deeply traumatized by the situation, which is why they have needed psychiatric help and support after the events. Juselius himself did not accept help in his youth.
– Somehow I feel that I got through the finals quite easily. I didn’t lose anyone. I knew who died in the events, but I didn’t lose my sister, mother or brother, Juselius states.
Roope Salminen’s Three turning points podcast can be listened to In PodMe.