Ken Wooden, founder of Child Lures Prevention, [warns] regarding a new TSA technique for getting children to cooperate with airport screeners by telling them that “pat-downs are a game.”
Wooden notes that the touching-is-a-game line is one of the most commonly used ploys by sexual predators to initiate inappropriate contact with a child.
Though Gilmore tried to explain her son’s medical condition and even presented the TSA agents with a card which explained the position of the rods, the workers still subjected the disabled teen to an invasive body search.
Parents told WVEC 13NEWS: “We had to hold his arms out. He went down with the back of his hands through his bottom around to the front and up through his groin area.”
*Reporter’s note: It is difficult for anyone to understand the need for or even the legality of such offensive contact, let alone for someone with autism.
Imagine this disabled young man’s fear as he was being groped by a stranger with his parents looking on.
How much longer will the flying public tolerate government-sanctioned assaults on their children?
A female passenger has claimed that she was assaulted by TSA agents when she was ordered to be patted down because her sanitary towel showed up on the body scanner.
The woman was wearing a flannel panty liner, that evidently aroused suspicion, causing her to endure what she described as a 'horrible' experience.
Humiliated by her experience, the unidentified Army vet wrote to women's health company Gladrags to detail what happened.
Eliana Sutherland recently flew from Orlando International Airport and told Local 6 she felt the two male TSA workers were staring at her breasts and chose her for additional screening because of their size.
"It was pretty obvious. One of the guys that was staring me up and down was the one who pulled me over," said Sutherland. "Not a comfortable feeling."
Bubb said the TSA employee touched her breasts and private areas outside her clothes and then inside her pants. Bubb said she was mortified and had to leave her daughter for about 20 minutes during this process.
"It's not a pat, it's a rub. They grip you, and they rub going all the way down your body," Bubb said.
At one point, Bubb said the screener put her hand in Bubb's pants.
"She told me you can thank the underwear bomber for this one," Bubb said.
She contacted TSA and the Colorado Springs airport. The airport responded by saying the employees were just doing their jobs.
An ABC News employee said she was subject to a "demeaning" search at Newark Liberty International Airport Sunday morning.
"The woman who checked me reached her hands inside my underwear and felt her way around," she said. "It was basically worse than going to the gynecologist. It was embarrassing. It was demeaning. It was inappropriate."
“One agent watched as the other used his flat hand to go slowly down my chest. I tried to warn him that he would hit the bag and break the seal on my bag, but he ignored me. Sure enough, the seal was broken and urine started dribbling down my shirt and my leg and into my pants.”
The security officer finished the pat-down, tested the gloves for any trace of explosives and then, Sawyer said, “He told me I could go. They never apologized. They never offered to help. They acted like they hadn’t seen what happened. But I know they saw it because I had a wet mark.”
Humiliated, upset and wet, Sawyer said he had to walk through the airport soaked in urine, board his plane and wait until after takeoff before he could clean up.
I was absolutely humiliated,' said bladder cancer survivor
For Republican Rep. John Mica of Florida, the way to make travelers feel more comfortable would be to kick TSA employees out of their posts at the ends of the snaking security lines. This month, he wrote letters to nation’s 100 busiest airports asking that they request private security guards instead.
Private contractors are not a cure-all for passengers aggrieved about taking off their shoes for security checks, passing through full-body scanners or getting hand-frisked. For example, contractors must follow all TSA-mandated security procedures, including hand patdowns when necessary.
TSA officials would select and pay the contractors who run airport security.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is warning that any would-be commercial airline passenger who enters an airport checkpoint and then refuses to undergo the method of inspection designated by TSA will not be allowed to fly and also will not be permitted to simply leave the airport.
That person will have to remain on the premises to be questioned by the TSA and possibly by local law enforcement. Anyone refusing faces fines up to $11,000 and possible arrest.
Trust me, if that were my beautiful, modest thirteen-year-old daughter being intimidated and groped, I couldn’t be held responsible for my actions. I have had two children, and my modesty level at this point in life is pretty minimal, but someone touching my kid is another story. That person is likely to get their eyes scratched out, TSA Agent or not. I am not kidding: Moms won’t abide someone messing with our children. Keep the cameras ready; it’s only a matter of time before one of us snaps. Hope it’s not me.
With holiday travel season quickly approaching, new rules on airport security scanners are on the minds of thousands of U.S. travelers. Think you know what to expect? Well, you may be revealing even more than you thought.