Going through airport security often makes people feel very nervous and uncomfortable. After stripping off your belt, emptying your pockets, and placing your shoes on the conveyor belt, you walk through the metal detector and say a prayer that you don't set it off for no-good reason.
One mom's airport experience has her outraged about how her, and her 13-year-old son were treated at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
"We have been through hell this morning," Jennifer Williamson starts her Facebook post. "They detained Aaron for well over an hour at DFW. (And deliberately kept us from our flight... we are now on an alternate) We were treated like dogs because I requested they attempt to screen him in other ways per TSA rules."
13-year-old Aaron was held up at airport security due to a laptop found in his bag. Jennifer told NBC News that Aaron had forgotten to take his laptop out of his bag before the screening, and when it was discovered it was put back through for additional clearance. She claims she said she heard the TSA agent deem it "cleared", but they still required Arron to be screen individually.
"I asked the agent if there's some type of way that we could conduct [the screening] in a different manner than patting him down," Williamson said. "I was then told that we could either be patted down or be escorted out by the DFW police."
She said she was told there is no alternative policy to that pat-down.
In the video that his mother filmed and posted to Facebook, it shows the 2-minute pat-down that her son experienced and people are questioning whether it went too far.
The video shows the officer painstakingly checking the child's waistband of his shorts multiple times, rubbing his hands along his back 4 times, and getting so close to the boys inseam that he may as well have been a tailor. The big issue is that he is using the front of his hands to pat Aaaron around his "sensitive areas", which is only supposed to be used in limited cases, as per TSA guidelines. Officers are required to use the backs of their hands for those parts of the body.
"I believe the pat down that was performed on my son went beyond normal standards," Jennifer told HuffPost.
We have been through hell this morning. They detained Aaron for well over an hour at DFW. (And deliberately kept us from our flight... we are now on an alternate) We were treated like dogs because I requested they attempt to screen him in other ways per TSA rules. He has SPD and I didn't want my child given a pat down like this. Let me make something else crystal clear. He set off NO alarms. He physically did not alarm at all during screening, he passed through the detector just fine. He is still several hours later saying "I don't know what I did. What did I do?" I am livid. Please, share... make this viral like the other children's videos with TSA... I wish I had taped the entire interchange because it was horrifying. We had two DFW police officers that were called and flanking him on each side. Somehow these power tripping TSA agents who are traumatizing children and doing whatever they feel like without any cause, need to be reined in.
Posted by Jennifer Williamson on Sunday, March 26, 2017
"Well I was thinking then that whenever this officer was touching me in certain areas," Aaron told NBC News. "I was taught that no one should touch you in that area and whenever someone is touching you like that, you would think, 'oh, who is this person and why are they doing this?'"
In a statement released by the TSA, they defended the actions of the security team in Texas.
"TSA allows for a pat-down of a teenage passenger, and in this case, all approved procedures were followed to resolve an alarm of the passenger's laptop," the statement reads.
What do you think? Did the TSA agent go too far?
