Appalachian State University’s Police Department and event staff is putting a reemphasis on bag checks at large venue sites on campus.

In addition, students will no longer be allowed to bring lawn chairs or backpacks into Kidd Brewer Stadium this year.

“We want to limit backpacks and large bags because these bags can be used to bring in other prohibited items and even firearms or explosives,” Director of Games and Operations and Sports Administration Douglas Justice said. “By prohibiting these bags, it cuts down the number of prohibited items that we feel will come into the stadium.”

“With the number of people we have in the stadium, we would have four of five rows deep on the road by the hill which made walking from the East to the West side or vice versa very difficult,” Justice said.

The complete list of prohibited items includes: alcoholic beverages, coolers and containers, artificial noisemakers, pets (with the exception of service animals), umbrellas, explosives and firearms, lawn chairs, food and beverages, and backpacks and/or large bags.

The Appalachian Police staff has been to conferences over the past year for training and education regarding stadium security that will help with the main aspects of game-day security and bag checking, Justice said.

In addition, the university is taking more precautions to make Holmes Convocation Center security safer.

“The goal of the Holmes Convocation Center is to enforce as many security measures as necessary to ensure the safety of our students, tenants and guests,” said Marcia S. Lusk, staff of the Holmes Convocation Center. “We will continue to work with university police and Department of Homeland Security to make sure our staff is well trained and proactive in the process.”

The complete list of prohibited items for the Holmes Convocation Center includes: alcoholic beverages, illegal drugs, any type of outside food or beverage, air horn and any artificial noisemakers, beach balls, balloons or other inflatable items, laser pointers or laser products or any kind, sticks and/or poles, fireworks or confetti, skateboards, bicycles or roller blades, weapons and contraband of any type.

“Our goal is to have a safe venue site,” Chief of Police Gunther E. Doerr said. “In this day and age we just want to make sure that [dangerous] situations don’t develop in a large venue site.”

Doerr added that there was a training session for the Holmes Convocation Center and there will be a security training session for the football stadium.

“In this post-9/11 world that we live in, we have to take measures to make sure that we keep people safe while on our campus and in our stadium,” Justice said. “So we have put a real emphasis on making sure we check every single bag that comes into the stadium because we want to make sure that we are providing a safe environment for our fans.”

Story: BECKY BUSH, News Reporter