Today, the first day back at school after the Christchurch terror attacks, Cashmere High School's principal said his key message in assembly today to students and staff was these attacks "do not define us".
Mark Wilson told 1NEWS the Christchurch attack has directly and indirectly affected the whole school.
"The situation within Cashmere at the moment is we’ve got two students who officially at this stage are missing, we’ve got another student in hospital with gun shot wounds and we have a past pupil who is still classified as missing."
"We’ve also got two fathers, one is classified as unaccounted for and the other one is in hospital," he said.
"You can’t go through an event like this and not be touched by it. Obviously there is going to be particular students who are great mates with these boys and these families. There are going to be people directly affected and even indirectly affected, it affects everybody."
He said there's going to have to be a lot of support available to care for the students, but also for the staff.
"This is a really traumatic situation and there’s going to have to be a lot of support and care for everybody, not just students but also for our staff who taught these students, who know these students that have been there over the years since they’ve been here."
He told his students today that the event will not define who they are.
"The key message is that this event does not define us. It doesn’t define us as a school, it doesn’t define us as a city or as a country. This is not New Zealand, this is not how we are," Mr Wilson said.
"It’s very easy to become overcome with the grief and the hatred of these situations. We have to ensure that love will come through."
Oki Tilaia, Cashmere High School's Head Boy said, "After what Cantabrians have been through like the earthquakes, we just know that we all have to stand together."
Cashmere High School organised a food drive for emergency services over the weekend and today counsellers are on hand to talk to anyone who needs it.
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