Debris and a small tribute of flowers replaces the scene of chaos found at 7.40am Monday
Two of the five people killed in Monday's horrific crash south of Kinleith were students at Rotorua Lakes High School.
Another of the five people from one family killed has already been confirmed as a girl who attended Rotorua Intermediate School.
A Waikato District Health Board communications spokeswoman said an 11-year-old boy who was also in the crash remained stable on a ward in Waikato Hospital.
Principal Bruce Walker had this morning confirmed two of the students were at his school. Students, staff and teachers were being offered grief counselling.
Rotorua Intermediate School previously confirmed they held a service for their pupil yesterday, and Walker said Rotorua Lakes High School did the same yesterday. He said their service was led by the students.
"We have visited the family and they now have to come to some hard decisions. It is hard for us as a school, as teachers and students but we can't begin to understand what it means for them."
Walker said some students who knew them well and were related to them were obviously finding it hard.
"It is hard for teenagers to deal with grief ... They sit in a classroom one day with these students and the next day they are not alive."
The school was now waiting for the family to make decisions before the school did more to pay their respects, Walker said.
"It is up to the family. As a school we are working through the grief and our hearts go out to the whānau."
Two Rotorua Intermediate School pupils were among the six in the car that crashed into a gum tree in Tirohanga Rd at 7.40am on Monday.
Police had yet to confirm the names of the three females and two males killed in the car crash.
Rotorua Intermediate School. Photo / Stephen Parker
Rotorua Intermediate principal Garry de Thierry earlier told the Rotorua Daily Post one pupil, an 11-year-old boy, was left in a serious condition and another pupil, his sister, had died.
"To have this in our own kura is devastating. We had upset students this afternoon when the message got out there so we paid our respects as a school in an assembly this afternoon.
"The whānau knows we are there to support them ... Rotorua is quite interconnected to different whānau, so there are a lot of connections and a lot of tears."
De Thierry said children at the school had all been informed and he stressed if pupils were having difficulty processing the tragic situation, there was help available through the school and the Ministry of Education.
