Värner Ryden Secondary School. Photo:Johan Nilsson/TT
Police in place at troubled Malmö school
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Published måndag 2 mars 2015 kl 09.28
The police were in place on Monday to meet pupils who turned up for class at the Värner Rydén school in Malmö, which has been temporarily closed after threats and violence.
The police were called in on Monday by the City of Malmö after word spread that demonstrations had been planned in protest against the school's temporary closure.
"We received signals on social media that there are planned demonstrations," said Malmö's Head of Education Hans Nilsson.
"We hope that it is going to be calm," Hans Nilsson said to SVT.
Pupils who turned up to school on Monday were told that it was closed and were asked to keep an eye on the council's website for news of further developments.
One of the pupils who turned up at the school, Monday, told the assembled pack of journalists that he could understand the safety concerns of teachers working at the Värner Rydén Secondary School.
"I understand that they feel frightened, because there is a lot of trouble. After the mergers, there are too many students," said Mohammed Khalil.
Over the weekend, the safety committee of the teachers' union decided to close the school in the Rosengård neighbourhood because of violence and criminality.
"The safety of students at the school can not be guaranteed. The students behave in classrooms but outside during recess and in the recreational room it is a very disruptive situation and there are a lot of conflicts," Catharina Niwhede, the district's director of the teachers' union in Malmö, told Swedish Radio News on Sunday.
According to the union, the situation started to become untenable after another school, Örtagårdsskolan, was closed last autumn, which led to many students from that school being placed in Värner Rydenskolan.
During Monday morning, management at the school were involved in crisis talks to discuss how to handle the situation. According to the school's website, the goal is to open the school on Tuesday.
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