TSA And The Disabled

From RT:

"TSA calls bomb specialist on wheelchair-bound 12-year-old girl"

TSA detained a 12-year-old wheelchair-bound girl for nearly an hour at the DFW International Airport after they found explosive residue on her hands. TSA left the mortified girl in tears, but refused to let her mother get close enough to comfort her. Shelbi Walser was traveling to Florida with her mother, Tammy Daniels, to receive treatment for a bone disorder that keeps her in a wheelchair. The 12-year-old girl is forced to make this trip every 4-6 months for treatment and never had any problems with the Transportation Security Administration before. But while going through security at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport last week, TSA swabbed the girl’s hands and found that she tested positive for explosive residue. Walser was detained for nearly an hour in front of hundreds of travelers, while TSA called in a bomb specialist. “There were people saying, ‘Really? You’re going to do this to her? Y’all have to take her somewhere private where she’s not out in the public and everyone can see her,’” the girl’s mother told Fox. Daniels believes the agents lacked common sense in their treatment of this incident. Wheelchairs pick up dirt, residue and anything they roll through. The 12-year-old girl rolled her own wheelchair, making it possible for her to pick up residue from the wheels. But TSA never tested the girl’s wheelchair to see if this might have been the case. The bomb specialist and the agents began talking on their cell phones, while other airport passengers watched in disbelief as the crying girl continued to be detained. “Through all of this, no common sense ever kicked in. No one ever tested her wheelchair,” Daniels told CBS. “If it was all about safety, why didn’t they remove her from her wheelchair and start testing the seat?” While the distraught girl was crying, TSA refused to let her mother get close enough to comfort her. Daniels says she never lost her temper and was respectful at all times, but a TSA agent made a call and referred to her as being “aggressive”. The girl said she was afraid the TSA agents would take her away from her mother. After the hour-long detainment TSA agents suddenly told Daniels and her daughter that they were free to leave, without offering any sort of explanation about the incident. After reporters contacted TSA, the agency refused to discuss the incident and simply provided a general statement about TSA’s mission. But this isn’t the first time the agency took their screening procedures too far with wheelchair-bound children. Earlier this year, a YouTube video was released showing a TSA agent giving a pat-down to a 3-year-old boy who was wearing a body cast and bound to a wheelchair, while letting the boy’s family continue through security. The boy was on his way to Disney World but was detained by TSA on the way. With a look of terror on his face, he was subjected to a screening that outraged many of the video’s viewers and caused it to go viral. In 2011, two other wheelchair users were forced out of their wheelchairs and allegedly groped by agents at the Greater Rochester International Airport. That same year, a six-year-old girl also received an intense patdown at the New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong International Airport, prompting Rep. Jason Chaffetz to introduce legislation prohibiting patdown searches of minors without parental consent. Despite constant complaints against TSA agents for their treatment of children and wheelchair-bound passengers, new incidents are constantly arising as passengers contact the news media about inappropriate treatment.

^ This is sick. The fact that so many incidents against the disabled (both adults and children) are allowed to happen is a disgrace. The Federal Government needs to step-up and have an independent agency review the TSA and if needed  - we all know it's needed - to change how things are done. People talk about the TSA needing to use common sense well that is only half the issue - the other half is hiring well-educated, hard-working people in the first place. You can try to train an idiot as much as you want, but that won't change them from being an idiot. If you hire someone who is well-educated and can think for themselves and then train them you have a chance of giving passengers and airport security a good experience. ^

http://rt.com/usa/news/tsa-12-year-old-girl-wheelchair-088/