BILLINGS - In the wake of Wednesday's Catholic school shooting in Minnesota, Billings-area schools are detailing the increases they are making to security.
The shooting left two dead and injured at least 17 at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, where Mass was being held.
Watch this video to see the upgrades local schools are making:
"It's terrible, obviously," said Billings Central teacher Krista Wahl on Wednesday. "Every time you see any school violence, you just want to pray for all involved."
Huntley Project Elementary School Principal Ben Lambert added that it's a sentiment likely felt around the country.
"What those teachers and those parents and those kids must be going through, we're all thinking about them," Lambert said.
With these incidents happening too often, Lambert said, schools often use them as lessons.
"You try to take something from the situations, and you try to learn something new," Lambert said.
Many Montana schools have already been making improvements to security systems.
At Billings Central, Principal Nolan Trafton said they are fixing the gated entrance into the school.
"In an effort for more security, those will eventually be secured," Trafton said. "You will need to be buzzed into those gates as well as the doors to the building."
Trafton said that they are also installing cameras in the hallways.
“We are installing additional security cameras to address some of the blind spots," Trafton said. "We want to have more security at different entrances, especially our main entrances."
Lambert said Huntley Project also underwent its own upgrades, adding night locks to every door in the building.
He said that when in place, it would take a battering ram to open the door, which had caused past problems for safety protocol.
"There were some fire code issues with that," Lambert said. "But we've worked our way through that."
The Huntley Project teachers are also equipped digitally. Every teacher has an app on their phone that can efficiently sound an alarm at any time.
"It's called the E3 app on every teacher's phone," Lambert said. "It allows us to communicate quickly and easily without having to use phones or intercoms or other things in place."
Lambert said it even has a map and an attendance section so that all children can be accounted for.
Earlier this month, Billings school officials met at a safety summit to prepare for the new year, and local church leaders also attended a safety training.
Lambert said that all are examples of statewide efforts to make sure these tragedies don't come closer to home.
"It's always a tough thing to see these situations happen," Lambert said. "Then, you know, making sure we take that and make ourselves better to be better prepared for our kids."
