Advertisement

‘It’s OK to grieve’: New Zealand PM to schoolmates of teens killed in mosque shooting

Click to play video: 'New Zealand PM tells students whose classmates were killed in mosque attack ‘it’s okay to grieve’'
New Zealand PM tells students whose classmates were killed in mosque attack ‘it’s okay to grieve’
WATCH: New Zealand PM tells students whose classmates were killed in mosque attack 'it's okay to grieve' – Mar 19, 2019

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had a simple but strong message for Christchurch high schoolers who lost two of their schoolmates in Friday’s mosque shooting: remember the victims, celebrate their stories — and don’t dwell on the person who took their lives.

Cashmere High School is located less than a 15-minute drive away from both the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre, where 50 Muslim worshippers were killed by a suspected white supremacist during Friday prayers on March 15.

The school lost two of its students in the attack: 14-year-old Sayyad Milne and 15-year-old Hamza Mustafa. Hamza’s 13-year-old brother Zaed suffered gunshot wounds to the leg.

The Mustafa brothers’ father Khalid, 44, was killed.

Tariq Omar, a former Cashmere High School student from 2008 to 2012, was also among those who died in the attack, the school’s principal said.

Story continues below advertisement

READ MORE: New Zealand Police release names of 5 victims killed in Christchurch shootings, but they’ve ID’d 21

On Wednesday, Ardern visited the grief-stricken school, with students performing a haka dance of welcome as she entered the gym to speak.

“One of the messages that I want to share with our young people in particular: it’s OK to grieve,” Ardern told some 200 students who gathered to hear her speak. “It’s OK to ask for help even if you weren’t directly affected.

“These images that people are seeing, they are really, really difficult to process.”

READ MORE: No one reported New Zealand mosque shooting video while it was live, Facebook says

Ardern asked the students if they had seen material on social media that made them uncomfortable, and most of them raised their hands, New Zealand-based news outlet Stuff.co.nz reported.

She promised the students swift action on social media as well as gun control.

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

WATCH: New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern vows ‘our gun laws will change’

Click to play video: 'New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern vows ‘our gun laws will change’'
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern vows ‘our gun laws will change’

Ardern then told the students that no single individual has the power to exterminate racism and that all New Zealanders had an important role to play.

Story continues below advertisement

“We don’t let racism exist because racism breeds extremism. It breeds some of the things that we, unfortunately, have had visited upon New Zealand,” she said.

“So this is my request. I alone cannot get rid of those things by myself. I need help from every single one of us.

“So if we want to feel like we are doing something to make a difference, show those outpourings of love, gather together… but also let New Zealand be a place where there is no tolerance for racism, ever.”

WATCH: New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern lays wreath at mosque, embraces mourners of Christchurch

Click to play video: 'New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern lays wreath at mosque, embraces mourners of Christchurch'
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern lays wreath at mosque, embraces mourners of Christchurch

Ardern then took questions from the students.

The first question was simple: “How are you?”

Story continues below advertisement

“How am I? Thank you for asking,” the prime minister responded. “I’m very sad.”

READ MORE: Some New Zealanders voluntarily surrender guns in wake of mosque shooting

Ardern also reiterated previous remarks in which she urged New Zealanders to deny the suspected gunman the notoriety he sought from his act.

“You know some of the young people who lost their lives on Friday. It’s their names and their stories that we need to keep telling, and it’s them that we need to honour,” she told the students.

“Yes, there will be interest in the terrorist who did this. But if I can request one thing: don’t say his name. Don’t dwell on who he is. Dwell on your students and your friends because they are the most important people that we need to remember right now.”

WATCH: New Zealand’s Ardern vows to deny gunman notoriety

Click to play video: '‘He shall be nameless’: New Zealand’s Ardern vows to deny gunman notoriety'
‘He shall be nameless’: New Zealand’s Ardern vows to deny gunman notoriety

The gunman’s desire for infamy was made clear by the fact that he left behind a convoluted 74-page manifesto before Friday’s massacre and livestreamed footage of his attack on the Al Noor Mosque.

Story continues below advertisement

“He obviously had a range of reasons for committing this atrocious terrorist attack. Lifting his profile was one of them,” Ardern told reporters on Tuesday. “And that’s something that we can absolutely deny him.”

Asked if she would like the trial to occur behind closed doors, Ardern demurred, saying that was not her decision to make.

“One thing I can assure you — you won’t hear me speak his name.”

— With files from the Associated Press

Sponsored content

AdChoices