TSA apologizes for forcing 4-year-old to remove leg braces at airport screening

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/02/tsa-apologizes-for-forcing-4-year-old-to-remove-leg-braces-at-airport-screening/1

by jacquesm • 16 years ago

31 30 16 years ago

content.usatoday.com

sigstoat• 16 years ago

4 years ago while i had a severely sprained knee, denver tsa made me hop about 20 feet total without my crutches. that was awesome fun.

jacquesm6• 16 years ago

Bastards. That's not without risk, if you had fallen your sprained knee might have turned a lot worse. Reflexive response to a fall is not something you can overrule even when injured.

rbrcurtis• 16 years ago

wow. thats really horrible.

gridspy6• 16 years ago

TSA is killing tourism to, from and through America.

mrduncan2• 16 years ago

What evidence do you have of that? (I'm genuinely curious)

Anecdotally, while agree that they are a complete joke, I certainly haven't flown any less recently.

gridspy6• 16 years ago

I didn't provide any evidence because I haven't got the research to back my claim up. The only way to gather real data would be to publicly proclaim some random blocks of calendar dates to be TSA free and see how much tourism changed during that time. I'm sure it would be interesting to see how much terrorism changed over that period (any effects would probably be exaggerated).

I can tell you it affects my personal travel plans (I try to avoid a stopover in the US on the way from NZ to London for example) and it makes me feel more negatively about the US overall. It doesn't take much to tip the balance from "I'd love to go" to "I'd like to go, but xyz location seems easier / more fun"

Since I live outside the US, I have an actual choice - if you lived inside the US you are pretty much forced to tolerate the TSA whenever you fly. I read a lot of horror stories online, and I don't like being near people with sidearms.

jacquesm6• 16 years ago

I have, I have tons of friends stateside but I've vowed to stay away until normality returns. If it never does than too bad, there are plenty of countries where I can go without being insulted every time I have to deal with the authorities.

I'm not a masochist.

icefox• 16 years ago

Not turism, but for business I plan on driving rather than flying to Toronto from Boston in a few weeks when I have to go back.

petercooper2• 16 years ago

This is woefully anecdotal and I wouldn't let it stop me, but I've mentioned my regular trips to the US to a lot of people here in the UK and I frequently get responses like "Ooh, America - aren't they supposed to be really scary letting you in when you get there?"

The TSA (even though they're not known as that) has a reputation in all sorts of places you wouldn't expect. Not that that should put anyone off, but hey, I'm always a bit on edge when I arrive there - they just create that atmosphere (to sweat out the true nasties, I guess).

cabalamat• 16 years ago

I live in the UK. A number of my friends have either been hassled by the TSA, or have expressed reluctance to travel to the USA because of them. Anecdotal, I admit.

seldo• 16 years ago

As an immigrant, I can certainly attest to the number of friends and relations who've listed the hostile attitude of customs and immigration amongst their reasons for not visiting more often.

It turns out visitors to your country don't like being treated as if they are unwelcome, and terrorists by default. America is not some gift to the world that visitors should be grateful for the chance to visit. It's just another arbitrary geographical nation-state, no better or worse than a dozen others.

rekcuts• 16 years ago

"Rubin writes that the TSA, in its apology, said Ryan should have been taken into a private area and swabbed for traces of explosive materials."

How is wearing leg braces probable cause for terrorism?

jacquesm6• 16 years ago

You mean you haven't heard about the new wave of disabled child terrorists?

This is so sick it makes me pretty upset. That poor kid has a lot in life to deal with already, these people have turned a brief rest from those issues in to a nightmare of humiliation and fear.

A letter of apology ? After a year ? And only because of media pressure ? Disgusting.

jseifer• 16 years ago

When I hear these stories, I sometimes wonder where any ounce of common sense comes in with the workers. Or how anyone could seriously demand that a child take off their braces and walk unassisted through the metal detector. Disgusting.

smallblacksun• 16 years ago

Because terrorists would NEVER use children in their attacks: http://www.literaturejunction.com/showthread.php?8100-Iraq-i... (sorry about message board link, the linked yahoo story is down). As you allow one group to bypass security, you have two problems. First, you open yourself to discrimination charges by people you don't let bypass security. Second, you run the risk that terrorists will recruit someone in the protected group to carry out an attack.

chuhnk• 16 years ago

An apology in this situation is like giving the kid a towel rack. Giant corporations apologize to cover themselves, that does not make up for what they did and it's not going to change the way they act in the future.

gridspy6• 16 years ago

Especially since they said "I'm sorry, we should have done xyz demeaning and frightening testing in private instead"

petercooper2• 16 years ago

I can't believe it! The TSA I know would never apologize for anything or to anyone :-)

callmeed• 16 years ago

My daughters got "Junior TSA" stickers at the Burbank airport: http://img124.yfrog.com/i/ts1q.jpg/

Dream big!

TSA apologizes for forcing 4-year-old to remove leg braces at airport screening

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