Had to feel through my hair to exert control.
The TSA has admitted to publicly humiliating and degrading two elderly women at JFK airport:
In an about-face, the feds have admitted wrongdoing in the cases of two elderly women who say they were strip-searched at Kennedy Airport by overzealous screeners.
Federal officials had initially insisted that all “screening procedures were followed” after Ruth Sherman, 89, and Lenore Zimmerman, 85, went public with separate accounts of humiliating strip searches.
But in a letter obtained by the Daily News, the Homeland Security Department acknowledges that screeners violated standard practice in their treatment of the ailing octogenarians last November.
Last weekend I flew out of of RIC with my two college aged sons. One luggage scanner was open, and I counted 9 TSA agents simply standing around watching passengers. As the line of fliers started to pile up and snake backwards, past the big brother tv monitors with homeland security people engaged in nanny state dialogue, the agents refused to open up another scanner. They simply stood, doing nothing, appearing to have a job description that consisted of staring at people to make them uncomfortable– at taxpayer expense. It came my turn to pass through the body scanner and I noticed a family being waved through the old metal detector.
“I want to go through that, like they are,” I told the agent.
“They are a family; if you were traveling with a family you could go through that,” he replied.
“Well, I AM traveling with a family, my two kids are right there,” I pointed.
“Put your hands over your head,” said another agent, ignoring me.
“No, I want to go through that,” I insisted, pointing at the less invasive technology. “Like they did.”
At this point, the agents with nothing to do but stare down passengers made their way to my position.
“Put your hands over your head,” said an agent.
A female agent then spoke up: “I think she’ll have to have a pat down too, in addition to the scan, because she is wearing a glittery vest”.
I was wearing a black sheer ruffled shirt with a sequin vest from Caché, a women’s boutique that specializes in apparel designed to harbor airplane explosives. WTF? Are you kidding me? I asked. The agent repeated what she said, that I would need both a scan and a pat-down.
I was in full embarrass-your-kids mode at this point.
“If I have to have a pat-down, then I’m not going to be scanned, just do the pat-down.”
At this point, the agents sounded like wound-up Oompa-loopahs: “Opt-Out. Opt-out. Opt-out” – everyone of them said it, echoing the other. The female agent began pulling on her gloves.
Then the hilarity ensued. The stupid agents could not figure out where to take me, without making me walk through the other scanner, the one the family had just passed through, so as they debated amongst themselves, I finally had enough of the blatant, criminal incompetency. I said, “Forget it, you guys are ridiculous. I’ll go through the scanner.”
My thought was I would sue them if they proceeded to pat me down too. Yeah, I know.
My hands over my head, I semi-yelled for the room to hear: “Do your research people, these things are NOT safe!”
No surprise. It turned out that my glittery vest held no explosives. But the agent got her feel in…as I gathered my things from the conveyor belt, she grabbed my head and felt through my hair.
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It could be that the TSA agents will get their due someday:
After years of rebuffing health concerns over airport scanners, the Transportation Security Administration plans to conduct new tests on the potential radiation exposure from the machines at more than 100 airports nationwide.
But the TSA does not plan to retest the machines or passengers. Instead, the agency plans to test its airport security officers to see if they are being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation while working with the scanners.
Here’s the thing that makes all the public degradation worse.
When I got to my destination, I went into the bathroom to reapply lipstick. Along with my make-up, in my purse, was a nice sharp pair of surgical scissors that my husband used to sell to hospital ORs. I forgot they were in there. Made it through the TSA, no worries, though.
January 19, 2012 at 6:28 am
You did the right thing by refusing to go through the scanner, and I am sorry you were coherced into doing something you did not want to do.
I always refuse to go through the scanner but make my objections way before I am in line. I once joked I wanted to be felt up by the “cute big boy” and the agent got pretty mad. I didn’t care, I wanted them to be embarssed as much as they were trying to embarsse me.
I have yet to read anywhere that these scanners have stopped anyone with a bomb, knife or gun on their person.
Keep up the fight Sara. As you know, I surely will also.