(The Lion) — Christian school leaders around the country were mostly calm following a deadly shooting at a Wisconsin Christian school Monday, saying it led them to pray and consider their own preparedness for such situations.

In conversations with several school directors, The Lion learned of various security measures Christian schools have already implemented, including new, cutting edge innovations.

Westminster Christian Academy in Town & Country, Missouri, even monitors an anonymous tip line for students and provides wearable panic buttons for staff.

The tip line has been in place since 2018, the year Tim DeWitt, a retired Air Force police officer, became the school’s head of security.

Other than one fake claim that was made when the line was first introduced, administrators at the grades 7-12 school say it has been used for legitimate purposes.

“It’s been super helpful,” said DeWitt, who also serves as an armed guard on the St. Louis-area campus daily. “I find the students are more likely to report something they see or hear that makes them uncomfortable if they’re not concerned about receiving retribution from sharing a report about their friend or classmate.”

The line is monitored 24 hours a day and tips go to DeWitt and two other staff members who can investigate or send referrals to the appropriate department. It receives 10-12 calls per semester.

The panic buttons, which are new this year, feature two alert levels: one for teachers who need assistance in their classroom or if they spot something suspicious, like someone in the building without identification.

The other, DeWitt says, immediately alerts both police and all staff that there’s an armed intruder in the building so they can “take steps to protect themselves and others.”

Students and parents give the school, which has nearly 1,000 students, high marks for safety in annual surveys, said Dani Butler, head of student development. Like most schools, it conducts regular safety drills, which are often required by law.

“Students feel very safe on campus because of all the security measures we have in place,” Butler told The Lion, “so when something like the incident yesterday happens in another school, it doesn’t create too much of an emotional disruption among our student body because they trust the system and they’ve been trained and communicated with often.”

The school spends well over $100,000 annually on security, Butler said, including AI-equipped camera systems and a license plate reader in the parking lot. That’s about $150 per student.

DeWitt says he’s always looking to innovate and improve on what’s being done.

“We try not to be complacent,” he told The Lion. “We want our students to be comfortable and not constantly fearing something like an active shooter. Part of this is making sure they’re well prepared.”

Valley Christian Schools in San Jose, California, employs a team of 15 security officers to keep its 2,800 students on two campuses safe. Security personnel are on site 24 hours a day, cameras watch the perimeter as well as the buildings and all visitors are background checked before entering, said school President Clifford Daugherty.

Daugherty, who has led Valley since 1986, said he didn’t see the need for many of the security measures until shootings at a Colorado church and missions base in 2007 alarmed him.

“That situation led me to believe we should have armed security guards on campus,” he told The Lion.

The school spends $1.8 million annually on security, or 2% of its $85 million operating budget. That averages to more than $600 per student. Valley claims to be the largest evangelical high school in America, with 1,630 students.

Daugherty says parents rank the school highly for security in annual surveys and that the school is always open to doing more.

“As the school shootings began to be more common, it felt like we have to do everything we can. We have to do what’s necessary. And if we felt like there was more that was needed, we would do more.”

Valley also relies on counselors, a spiritual formation team, wellness director and its teachers to look out for students who may be having problems or feeling disconnected. It also addresses incidents of cyberbullying.

“I think the important thing is to treat everyone with a lot of respect and care for people,” Daugherty says. “When they have a concern to address it, to be personable and not to be autocratic in our dealings with each other.

“I think most of my hope for the threats that would come from being mistreated or feeling not cared for is to be seen and to see others and to care, and, of course, the love of Christ.”

For Danny Maggart, superintendent of St. Joseph Christian School in Missouri, safety measures that have been implemented over the last few years give him confidence that his school “isn’t a soft target.”

Some of those measures include bullet-resistant glass on doors and windows, cameras, locked doors and required background checks for visitors to enter the building.

The school also trained multiple staff members two years ago and gave them permission to be armed on campus, forming a de facto security squad. “They are highly trained and would be able to coordinate with our local law enforcement if an event were ever to happen here on campus,” Maggart said.

The school, which has 525 students in pre-K through 12th grade, was “somber” after learning of the Wisconsin shooting because it is similar in size and scope to the targeted school, but things went on “business as usual,” because “we’re in lockdown basically all day, every day.” Maggart sent an email to parents Tuesday reminding them of the security measures the school has in place.

Still, the shooting was “a reminder for us to review everything we’re doing. You can’t prepare for every single scenario you come up against, but it makes us want to review what we have in place and what we want to put in place.”

The school also fosters a culture of “when you see something or hear something, you say something,” Maggart said, and a community that genuinely cares for one another. It added a second counselor and has trained staff on how to reach out to kids.

Northland Christian School in Kansas City, a school of 550 students, has many of the above-mentioned security measures such as cameras and visitor check-in procedures. It decided to further restrict visitors this week after Monday’s incident, said Superintendent Bryan Prewitt.

“This is a time of year when college kids come back on break and want to see their teachers. We’re just saying ‘no’ for right now,” Prewitt told The Lion. “We just need to be wise about who we’re allowing in.”

The school has a counseling department that serves students and families, and Prewitt is relying on teachers and administrators who monitor the entrance in the mornings to “look every student in the eye as they walk in and see ‘are they OK. Is this student coming in with an issue that we need to address before they go on about their day? Do you need to see the counselor?’

“We have to trust the people that are coming to school every day. The incident (Monday) was by a student who was allowed in every day.”

The process starts with hiring teachers and staff that genuinely love God and care for kids, Prewitt said.

Add to that vigilance, appropriate security measures and prayer, and Christian schools can continue to serve their students and families well.

“We certainly rely on the Lord to watch over us and watch over the school,” said Maggart of St. Joe Christian. “I’m glad we’ve taken those steps to do everything that we can possibly to help deter something like this from happening.”