AUSTIN — Architects and public safety officers testified about school safety before a panel of Texas senators Monday, and they kept coming back to one component: students' mental health.

The nine members of a select Senate committee studying violence in schools asked about increased security and future building plans that would deter school shootings, but time and again the expert witnesses countered the options of arming teachers and installing metal detectors, prioritizing mental health.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick appointed committee members in May following a three-day summit Gov. Greg Abbott held in response to the Santa Fe school shooting. He gave them four interim charges: look at school infrastructure, discuss security options such as arming school personnel, examine the cause of mass murder and determine if existing protective order laws are stringent enough. They have until the first week of August to complete their report.

San Antonio ISD Police Chief Joe Curiel said school police officers know their campuses and build relationships with students, so they can read them better than officers just arriving at the school.

"Human intelligence is key to preventing active shooter incidents," Curiel said.

For example, instead of immediately penalizing a student for breaking the dress code or patting them down for contraband, Curiel said he would work on the relationship he built with the student and ask if he could help with anything.

Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, applauded Curiel's approach but excoriated the lack of mental health resources in place to prevent school violence.

"You want to talk about architecture, gun training?" he said. "Here's a great witness and resource. He's doing his job, he apprehends someone dressing abnormally. He refers to them as a mental health case and they come back in a week and have not received any treatment. And we wonder why we're sitting here having this conversation."

If lawmakers don't figure out a way to detect mental health crises before they escalate and get students meaningful help, the Legislature will end up fortifying public schools and still see school shootings, Whitmire argued.

"The most severe, broken part of our system — mental health," he said.

Preventing violence at schools

Chris Huckabee, chairman of a school safety workgroup the Texas Society of Architects formed, said school buildings are often designed to bring students to "conversational areas," allowing them to have more intentional interactions with each other.

"We're not thinking the traditional school with solid walls," he said.

Huckabee, chief executive of the Fort Worth architecture firm that bears his name and has been designing schools for decades, said some security measures can be built into schools, such as locking down sections of the building to keep a shooter penned in one place.

Mike Matranga, executive director for security and school safety at Texas City ISD, argued that 100 percent security isn't possible and that schools should instead focus on prevention.

"You can never take away that human element," said Matranga, a former Secret Service officer. "If someone is determined to cause chaos, they're going to do it."

He also said even though people are wary of privacy infringement, he's considering ways his team can monitor students' social media.

"These kids are more savvy than all of us when it comes to technology," he said. "People need to get it out of their head that we're going to completely eliminate these threats. We reduce risks. If you can reduce it down to minute percentage, that's a success."

Senators also debated the best ways to supplement school security and said many parents have been asking about metal detectors.

Sen. Larry Taylor, the committee chairman, said metal detectors would be a complex solution because of funding, the number of entrances and the personnel needed to man them. He also said the time it would take to funnel students through metal detectors would leave a large group of potential targets outside schools.

"The metal detector is not the end-all," the Friendswood Republican said. "There are other ways to kill people."

Arming teachers

Senators asked about leaning more heavily on programs that arm faculty, such as the school marshal plan the Legislature passed in 2013, authored by Dallas Rep. Jason Villalba. The plan allows school boards to appoint personnel to carry firearms on campus once they've been trained by law enforcement in an 80-hour course.

The "Guardian Plan," which Harrold ISD superintendent David Thweatt created in 2007, allows schools to set their own rules in authorizing employees to carry guns on campus. They typically require Guardians to have a concealed handgun license.

Matranga and Curiel both said arming teachers could create more chaos in an active shooter situation because officers arriving on scene would see a civilian with a gun and react by firing. They said they would rather have more officers in the schools.

"The marshal and Guardian programs just make people feel good," Matranga said. "With the Guardian program — if you're going to put a weapon in the hands of someone who took a 16-hour class, why not hire a police officer?"

The committee will meet again Tuesday to further discuss security options, including the marshal program, police officers and armed school personnel.