The John Paul Jones Arena, an entertainment venue owned by the Commonwealth of Virginia, deals with questions concerning revenue, ticket sales during an economic downturn, and whether Lady Gaga could fill its seats to capacity if she brought her act to Charlottesville. Now, arena staff may be acknowledging that public safety is an even higher mission.
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During a March 17 press conference at John Paul Jones Arena, Dan and Gil Harrington raised questions about video coverage and security around the arena. “We have video all over WalMart,” said Gil Harrington. “Do we protect our stuff more than our people? I don’t know.” |
Five months after the abduction and murder of Morgan Harrington, the University of Virginia has announced several significant changes to its controversial re-entry policy at the John Paul Jones Arena (JPJ), and to its procedures at JPJ for the overall supervision of crowds and event attendees. The changes include re-training arena staff to be on careful lookout for patrons injured or in distress, requiring arena staff to notify a manager in the event that an impaired patron attempts to leave the building, and calling on University Police to assist if there is heightened concern about the health or safety of any individual.
JPJ staff will now be “on a higher alert for patrons in distress and not take anything for granted,” according to Carol Wood, assistant vice president for public affairs at UVA.
These important safety and security enhancements might have saved the life of 20-year-old Morgan Harrington, and may well save the next young person who requires emergency medical assistance at a future JPJ event.
The no-re-entry policy remains in force—if in name only. The new plan appears designed specifically to detect and assist a young person in distress like Harrington, who eventually wandered from the arena during the Metallica show and whose remains were discovered on January 23.
These changes in safety policy at JPJ were created by a committee of UVA administrators, University Police and JPJ officials that had “several meetings” since Harrington’s abduction, according to a separate statement issued by Wood.
That UVA announcement came on the heels of a press conference held outside the arena on March 17 by Dan and Gil Harrington, her parents, who continue to scrutinize the events that took place in and around the arena on the night of their daughter’s abduction.
“What I don’t understand,” Dan Harrington said, “are the reports of Morgan as she was leaving the building bleeding, and [her making] multiple attempts to get back into the building, yet no one attended to her.
“Is security any different now,” he asked, “than it was five months ago?”
With its announced changes, UVA and JPJ can finally answer that question with “yes.”
“Morgan Harrington’s…death hit the University community hard,” Carol Wood wrote in an e-mail. “We understand that young women are particularly vulnerable.”
JPJ has “reinforced the training that staff previously received making them acutely aware of being on the alert for patrons who are injured or in distress,” Wood wrote. “Everyone who works the venue [must] be on heightened alert to their surroundings, and the behavior of individuals they encounter… We want event staff to take responsibility to make a quick judgment when they observe something… Even when in doubt, better bring it to a manager…and not to hesitate to alert police if they [have] concerns.”
Due to the ongoing police investigation, Wood would not comment on the existence of surveillance video of Harrington inside or outside the arena on the night of October 17, 2009.
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