Pupils in Finnish schools joined in a one-minute silent moment of reflection on Tuesday afternoon over the memory of the Beslan school siege victims in North Ossetia. A large number of schools all over Europe interrupted their lessons for a silent moment at the same time.
The idea of a simultaneous moment silence had been proposed by The Netherlands, currently holding the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The Finnish government had expressed a wish that Finnish schools would join in the gesture over the Beslan victims.
The government has sent their profound condolences to those suffering from the terrorist act as well as to the Russian people.
At the international school in Oulu, the first-graders joined together to honour the memory of the Beslan schoolchildren. First, the teacher asked the children to recall which sad incident had recently taken place in Russia, and most of them said that they had seen a newscast of the events on TV.
After the silent moment, the teacher asked the children to talk to their parents about the incident at home in the evening. The children also put their names on the memorial board that had been placed in the lobby of the school.
Some schools reported that some of the parents had objected to the principle that tragedies like this are discussed at school, as they are afraid that the children might become distressed about world events.
