Tragic Loss at Gol Secondary School: Signe Slaatten Remembered as Fellow Students Mourn

Gol secondary school is located in Ål’s neighboring municipality Gol – a little further east in Hallingdal than Signe Slaatten’s home municipality. Photo: Endre Ulsaker / Gol secondary school

Signe Slaatten (18) should have been there. Instead, her fellow students mourned her loss.

Tuesday 2 April at 22:54

It was a sad day at Gol secondary school, the first day of school after Easter.

A desk was empty. Everyone knew why.

Principal Anita Ulsaker describes it as a very special day at the school.

– We had a joint gathering for students and staff. It was very special to gather again after a long holiday. At the same time, such a collection is important. It emphasizes the importance of looking after each other, says Ulsaker to VG.

Signe Slaatten (18) (on the right) was a pupil and Russian in grade 3 at Gol secondary school. It was she and her brother Sander (22) and mother Ingunn (53) who were found murdered at Torpo in Ål in Hallingdal. Photo: Private

Signe Slaatten, her brother Sander (22) and her mother Ingunn Slaatten (53) all died instantly after they were killed while they were sleeping on the Saturday before Palm Sunday, 23 March.

Principal Ulsaker thinks that it will probably take some time before Signe’s fellow students and the staff are back to a completely normal everyday school life.

– It will have to come eventually. Now it is completely natural to grieve and be sorry.

The heaviest day

– What is it like to be the school’s top leader on a day like this?

– This is the heaviest day I have had as headmaster. The situation has been quite special. One of our students is suddenly gone. Then there is good support in being together. We also get good assistance from the priest and crisis team, says the headmaster.

Just under 300 pupils attend Gol vgs. Signe Slaatten, who would have turned 19 on Maundy Thursday, had around 85 fellow pupils in year 3. They are now facing the Russian holiday and spring without her.

Work is also being done to plan a separate memorial service for pupils and staff at the school later.

– People know everyone

Previously, VG spoke to, among others, the provost in Hallingdal, Sveinung Hansen.

He put into words what it was like to meet people again in the affected villages after the horrific incident.

<-Provost Sveinung Hansen

– There is something about the fact that when tears fall, we show that we have lost something we love.

He himself lives in Ål, but has been to the church at the home of the three killed in Torpo several times recently:

– Here relatives and friends cross paths. It’s so small here, so people know everyone. I have noticed that there are lit candles and flowers. I think people take care of each other, said the dean.

2024-04-02 20:54:27


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