Espoo | High school students tell about a party that got out of hand in Espoo

The Nasujaites may not be the best tradition, but during their holidays you get to know new friends. Those participating in the event should not take nasujai too seriously.

This is what the students of the first year of Espoo’s Matinkylä high school say they think Touko Paajanen, Olli Saari, Tuukka Matikainen, Niko Mäntylä, Noel Nyholm, Eemil Ylä-Viteli and Aleksi Valvio.

Nasujaine is an event where older students, depending on the audience, humiliate or group high school first-graders.

The whole group of friends took part in the party organized at Klobben’s beach last Friday, which were deprived out of control. Among other things, the first-graders of Matinkylä high school were shot with water guns containing vinegar and ordered into various sex positions, Over tells.

A group of friends says that they participated in the nasujai because they wanted to be part of the tradition and gain new experiences. Even the loudest program numbers didn’t bother them, and they hadn’t heard that anyone they knew had been injured in the incident.

According to Yle, at least one student went to the doctor after the pranks in question because of an eye infection from acetic acid.

According to friends, similar parties have been organized at their friends’ high schools.

HS also reached a second-year high school student who participated in teasing first-graders. He told HS his name but speaks anonymously in the article due to the sensitivity of the matter.

He is sorry that some of the older students went overboard. The student himself thinks that he was mostly a follower of the events, although he messed up those who started high school with ketchup and flour.

He believes that at Nasujai, some people have “a good reason to do things in the name of the occasion that they wouldn’t otherwise do”.

In his opinion, the party could be changed to an event that the tutors would organize for the top students of the high school and where outsiders would not be allowed.

Principal Harri Henttonen would like to end the nasujais tradition. Picture: Matti Pietola / HS

The Nasujaites are a problem for the entire capital region, states the principal of Matinkylä high school Harri Henttonen.

It is difficult for high schools to intervene in the informal tradition, as the events are organized during the students’ free time.

They often have excesses because the young people have no experience in organizing large events or maintaining order, the principal estimates.

Around 50–60 of the approximately 450 first-graders in Matinkylä high school participated in the party, Henttonen says. There were about a hundred older students.

“It’s not a good equation,” says the principal.

Students from the second high school also participated in the pranking, who might have had a lower threshold for humiliating first graders, because they won’t see them every day in the school corridors, Henttonen points out.

At least one student from Matinkylä high school is known to have committed excesses at the party, says Henttonen. However, according to him, the high school cannot use disciplinary measures in cases where the objectionable activity has taken place during the students’ free time.

However, if it turns out that someone who has been worse at partying has a position of trust in, for example, the board of the student union, it is clear that he cannot continue in his position, says the principal.

Headmaster Henttonen plans to campaign in favor of no more nasujais being organized in the future. In order to break the tradition, support from parents is also needed, he says.

But are the first-graders who have been the target of bullying going to grab ketchup and vinegar bottles next fall?

It hasn’t been thought about yet, the friends say. We’ll see if someone continues.