Violence from Customers

[spookhaven]

We are thinking about allowing touching in a certain part of our haunt in 2012. With that in mind I read many posts about more violence from customers this year. Protecting our actors is a big concern for us. But, we visited a haunt this past weekend and my actors loved the touching (me too). So my question is are you finding more violence coming from haunts that allow touching or no touch policy?

What additional training are you doing and/or going through before you allow an actor in that position? I am also concerned about sexual harassment issues so think a waiver might be necessary. But then you have people coming through under 18, you can use that waiver for toilet paper, right?

Thoughts.......

Oh let me also say we are going to make this a separate part that will be optional for someone to go through. It will be a separate attraction within and separate fee or combo ticket can be purchased.

[Jim Warfield]

Massage therapists, chiropracters..all dully state approved, licensed.
Sure.
Is there a legal president on touching?
Is reaching around a blind corner with a soft stuffed phony arm, touching someone the same thing?
Is there a strike zone as in baseball? Fair/foul!?
Will such touchers need to be wearing night vision equiptment to insure they do it correctly? Constant surveilence camera recording with night vision too?
Getting touched by someone in costume, obscured as to which sex and who they might be might inspire more retrobution from a customer.

[monsterwax]

I'm sure you'll get some very opinionated thoughts on this subject. But they are all just opinions, so I'll throw my two cents in, even though I expect some will disagree with it.

I personally think this "no touch" policy is an overreaction to a frivolous lawsuits. And maybe they weren't all frivolous, either. We all know many haunts allow volunteers who haven't been trained well to come in and do whatever. Some of them have grabbed at girls in the dark and taken advantage of the situation. So a few people get sued and the next thing we know, the entire industry overreacts and eliminates one of the best arrows from its arsenal of attack. So many gals come in to our haunt and say (usually with their hands in the air) "Promise me no one will touch me! Promise! Or I won't go through!"

Now I used to say, "Sure, no one will touch you" to make them happy. But that kinda kills it for everyone else in the group that WANTS to be scared, and doesn't want to be reassured there is nothing to worry about. (Besides, someone might touch them by accident and we don't want them to say "but you promised!") We also get the same thing from people who say "There's no clowns in here, right? I can't handle clowns!" or "I freak out over snakes, so tell me now if there's any snakes and I'll leave!" What are we supposed to do? Let the chickens design our haunt?

So now I tell tell them, "We try to prevent any one from touching you, but there's three reasons we can't make any promises. The first is that we can't control what your friends in your group do, especially your boyfriend when its dark-- so you'll have to take that up with him. The other is that this is an old warehouse, and as such, it's infested with rats and other creepy crawlers. They are NOT tame, nor trained, nor can they be controlled! Oh sure, we kill as many as we can, but they just breed faster! So if they scurry across your feet or drop in your hair from the overhead girders, we humbly apologize, but the most we can do is offer free treatment if they should bite or scratch you. Just make sure we know about it as soon as it happens so we can arrange all the shots. And finally, there's the other problem. Not everyone in here is... what you would technically call, "alive". But rest assured, if you touched by anyone or anything other than your friends, it will either be a creature or something quite dead. I hope that's reassuring. Shall we begin?"

Of course, that's the last thing in the world they want to hear, and sometimes they insist on leaving. But there are no refunds and more importantly, the rest in the group likes it. Instead of helping them reign in their imagination before the tour, it unleashes it. And it also discloses that we may touch them with non-living things (like monster hands on poles-- although never in controversial regions of their bodies.)

That being said, there are several things we do to prevent touching that might be considered sexual by the staff. First, everyone is forbidden from doing it except a few select people who I trust and who have strong credibility. One is female police officer (not uniformed but costumed). It's also handy to have someone like that on your staff if you do have violence or other issues. People are not likely to accuse such a person of inappropriate touching because she's 1. A woman 2. Police 3. doesn't do it in the dark, but in full view of others (witnesses). The others are people who control long mechanical arms or props that touch, but only on the shoulders or head (they come down from above). This eliminates any direct touching by males to any personal areas (in fact, it's best when they are controlled by women). And there are a few better lit areas where we're talking to people in groups where we might suddenly grab them on the shoulder and such, but in full view of the others (and again, only certain trusted employees.)

The long and short of it is that you do have to take precautions, not allow actors to make these decisions for themselves, and come up with a policy that avoids the 99% of the problems that got haunts into this mess to begin with. This may not stop everyone from making frivolous law suits-- nothing can stop scam artists from trying-- but it should prevent any legitimate claims of inappropriate groping and make any frivolous claims very difficult to collect on.

Okay, so maybe was more like THREE cents worth...

[HauntedMemphis]

The strategy of one haunt I've been to that allows touching is to hire actors from Steven's Point (all girl college). People didn't seem to complain much about the touching.

[Allen H]

are you finding more violence coming from haunts that allow touching or no touch policy?
No, I see no more violence at haunts that touch. I have worked in both and while there are factors that increase the violence That is not one of them from my experience. Oddly when actors touch at non touching haunts it does have an effect.

What additional training are you doing and/or going through before you allow an actor in that position?
The right to "touch" is only granted to certain people- it has never been a cast wide gift granted to everyone. The touching is limited to certain areas, hair, knees down, elbows down to hands.

[Gore Galore]

I think this is a "TOUCHY" subject. LOL.
Seriously, I don't know exactly where customers got the idea that haunted house actors couldn't touch.
And you always hear, "Touch me and I will sue". So don't touch those people. They shouldn't get the extra attention, or actor investment of time and energy. I think of touching as special treatment.
I will admit. I use "Touch" as a scare tool. But you should be very careful, and it is always the legs. our actors work very hard to be super quick about it, and stay out of reach.
This is exactly the reason We created the Zombie Arm below. So it helps keep your actor at a distance but still allowing you to touch your customer. And it really helped in our Design at Scarywood. The actor was under the boiler reaching out with the zombie arm. It set up the whole scene driving the customer to the other scare in the scene. Plus it distracted the customer so it intensified the drop portrait scare.
I would be interested to hear what our customers thoughts were that purchased the zombie arms thought of their effectiveness.

Our actors are trained to feel out the group before they touch. Listening before they enter the "scarezone" to understand the type of customer they are.
Not ALL get this special treatment.

AND NO not all actors should be touching. I also think this should be reserved for your best actors. Who know HOW to scare and can use this "TOOL" to really intensify the scare. You can take a group of laughing customers to screaming in a split second.
It really is a "TOOL" and it has to be used carefully and sparingly so the customer does not become desensitized to it.

It is definitely something to think about. But you should make sure your customers understand that touching COULD happen.