TSA Gets it Wrong…Again [VIDEO]
The TSA apparently thought it would be fun to screen Lucy Schulte and give her mother a hard time when she wanted to record the patdown. And keeping the little girl’s stuffed animal from her after it was screened was a nice touch.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is again in the news involving an incident in which agents sought to screen a 3 year-old girl in a wheelchair.
The incident occurred Lambert Airport in St. Louis.
The Washington Post reports:
‘The incident happened Feb. 8. The girl and her family were about to fly to Disney World in Orlando, Fla. A TSA agent asked to pat down the 3-year-old and screen her wheelchair. The agent initially told the girl’s mother, Annie Schulte, it was illegal to tape the activity.
On the video, the little girl, Lucy, who has spina bifida, is seen crying.
Agents eventually decided against a pat-down.’
Agents allegedly were unwilling to give the little girl’s stuffed animal back to her even after it was screened (watch video below).
The TSA says it regrets the incident and will address concerns with its workers.
Really?
Really??
Either the agents involved are unfeeling jerks or their supervisor is and they didn’t want to get fired.
‘I don’t allow anyone to touch my little daughter without being able to record it’.
Kudos to the mother! That’s EXACTLY what I would have done!
Oh….and don’t give her stuffed animal back. That’s a nice touch.
Pathetic.
Am I wrong? I’d like to hear your take below…
VIDEO:
Category: Airnation
Comments (22)
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**** the TSA!
Screening has to be done. Unfortunately the bad guys could hide something in a wheelchair or a baby!
These sick bastards have no regard for life.
In another war it was common to booby-trap babies!
The TSA agent was obviously insensitive, and rough. There is another way with proper procedure without alarming the child
I agree the TSA are sick bastards and have no regard for life.
They enjoy terrorising innocent people and in fact protect the law breakers. we would do better without them as they are just used by the administation to put fear into the ordinary people .
Clive, with all respect to your opinion, I did not say the TSA has “no regard for life.”
Terrorists have no regard for life and have in the past planted explosive devices on innocents!
The TSA is poorly run with a bloated budget. Homeland Security Secretary Janet (the system worked) Napolitano is the wrong person to run this agency. Moral is low and it seems idiots are running the show.
Thank You
‘The TSA agent was obviously insensitive, and rough. There is another way with proper procedure without alarming the child’
Exactly Richard. I understand they have protocols to follow. But this go WAY beyond basic decency.
The TSA needs to be abolished and airport security needs to be privatized with basic government oversight.
Gee. Wow! You mean to tell me that the TSA not only can’t do their job correctly because they’re a bloated, inept government agency but on top of that they’re a mean, vindictive, power-hungry bunch of losers.
….and I DO mean losers when they have to resort to terrorizing a 3 year-old HANDICAPPED girl!
Oh…..but wait!!! They APOLOGIZED! ok! It’s all good now.
Maybe they’ll do better next time, huh?
So we Americans are REALLY going to put up with this? The takover of our liberty and rights? We really are??
We have truly lost our way as a people…
This isn’t the first incident involving children in wheelchairs. Yes, in theory someone could hide explosives in a wheelchair, but there are better ways to do this.
Cute little beagles are trained to sniff out illegal fruit. Why not train them to smell explosives? Instead of being threatening, most children would enjoy a small dog’s attention. It might not be cost effective at small airports, but would be at airports large enough to have disabled passengers on a regular basis. Is the TSA’s objective security or intimidation?
The problem is TSA has no leadership. Of course there are better procedures. However the big picture here is the TSA/Home Land Security is just window dressing.
TSA is isuless anyway . Thats very disturbing and very unprofessional what they did to this family
Screening had already been done to this little one, her wheelchair and her stuffed toy. This is an example of the moronic, unsupervised government employees paid to secure our airline travel. Sure gives me a warm, fuzzy and there really aren’t any reasonable excuses for this demented behavior. Just give some hamburger flippers a badge and watch them clean up aviation. Sorry, no excuse for this garbage. Janet, dear lady, you are in so far over your head, but that’s quite alright, you fit in perfectly with the DOT and FAA.
APOLIGIZE AGAIN and Again……it is such a waste of time,money, and do I FEEL SAFER??
F U _ K NO
Privatize the TSA? You have got to be joking. Where does it say that a private company can do any better? What’s their incentive? Money? More pat downs= more money? stealing stuffed animals from children= More money? Privatization is not the cure. Better training. Better pay for TSA. You’ll get smarter people applying for jobs.
In our world of low-cost everything, private industry will hire Wal-Mart greeters as screeners.
This is absolutely OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!! Where’s the “fun” on picking on a crippled little girl? Spinal Bifida is NO laughing matter…..then, take her teddy bear….insult to injury….Glad the mother got them on video…and hopefully got their names, their supervisor’s name and any other name belonging to a “figure of some sort of bs authority” at this airport….There’s something hideously wrong with this incident…..I’ve had good contacts with the TSA but maybe we’re just lucky where we live and the TSA people here are not only highly observant but compassionate. And have common sense which is a rarity these days……..
PS…DebraJean has a great idea…using beagles as wheelchair “sniffers”…at least that wouldn’t be a threatening face to the little ones having to endure this nonsense…….
My wife travels in a wheelchair. A wheelchair can hold a considerable amount of explosives if the SOB Terrorists can arrange it. What normally happens is that the owned wheelchair goes though electronic screening while a TSA -provided (pre-screened) chair is used to transport the person in the terminal. I have found the TSA folks as a rule to be extraordinarily gentle and kind to my wife during the screening process. I would hope that any terrorist caught boobytrapping a wheelchair be given his passport to Paradise and be blown up in his wheelchair on the Tarmac, but I think some might find thsat”cruel and unusual punishment” . OK – blow up their lawyers too. The lamby should have been returned to the child immediately.
I suffer the TSA rudeness too often, being a professional of the airline industry. Of course there are nice and well trained officers but a big percentage, as somebody said before, are hamburger flippers with a badge, with all my respect to the hamburger flippers.
I understand what terrorists did and believe me, I’d nuke them all. But I’m sure they will eventually do it again because their kids are brainwashed in their schools and ready to go to paradise. Did anybody ever thought about a locally trained crew, flying a national airline scheduled service into any free world city? Wouldn’t it be easier than trying to go through TSA or any other country airport security? The crew could easily get through airport security, having nothing prohibited in their bags, approved airline badges, anything not to arise any suspicion and then crash the plane right after take-off into any major world’s city. The security agency would have done their job, maybe even politely and the result would be the same as no security at all.
In my modest opinion, it is impossible to secure air transportation, (what about RPG’s ? They’ve tried and failed. How do we know they won’t try again and succeed? How do we protect our flights from it? What about other transportation means: trains, ships, trucks? A truck load of explosives in the city center?). The only thing left to administrators, is to ensure events like Lucy’s never happen again. We citizens deserve the most respect from any government officer. Don’t forget we pay their salaries.
Maybe profiling is not politically correct, but being murdered by a terrorist is even worst than profiling. And in their countries, usually don’t care at all about anything politically correct. They just do as they wish.
What makes these people think that just because their daughter needs a wheelchair they are exempt from the usual security procedures? Never heard of mindless terrorists using kids as their weapons? I want to continue to fly safely.
A variety of sources stated that the young girl, her chair and her stuffed toy had already cleared thru the initial screening. What would the purpose of this screening be if random secondary inspections, extremely invasive as this appeared to be, were required. I am sure we don’t have the very best and detailed information on this but we got the standard apology from TSA when they are caught doing something outrageous or stupid. No one wants to jeopardize safety but lets be real. Some travelers are not required to remove headdress or robes yet this little girl was basically abused after clearing screening. Does anyone think that is what it takes to make aviation travel safer? I personally feel that the safety and screening should return to the airports and the airlines. Get the government out of the middle of it because as we all know, there aren’t many success stories of our government doing much right. This isn’t really an exception
We need to take lessons from the Israelis. They know who is getting on their planes. They also know how to screen with a few good questions. I am not sure the hamburger flippers they hire would know how to do this. You get what you pay for.
the world is becoming a crazy place!! This goes way beyond any definition of screening for security purposes! One would love to think the perpetrators would be severely dealt with—–however, reality suggests a very different outcome!!