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Viral Post Calls Out TSA on Unnecessary Pat Down

The Transportation Security Administration is on blast from an angry mother who filmed her son, who has sensory processing disorder, being subjected to what she says was an unnecessary and traumatizing pat down; because of his condition, her son doesn’t process physical touch properly and reacts poorly.

A viral Facebook post has put the Transportation Security Administration on blast for what a passenger traveling through Dallas said was an unfair pat-down of her child. Jennifer Williamson was traveling with her son Aaron, who has a sensory processing disorder when she says the TSA detained the two of them for more than an hour.

Aaron did not set off the metal detector but was chosen for extra screening. Jennifer asked agents not to pat him down, as his condition means he doesn’t process physical touch properly and it would upset him. According to Jennifer’s post, the TSA didn’t listen and did the pat-down anyway. She recorded the pat-down incident and posted it on Facebook.

“We were treated like dogs because I requested they attempt to screen him in other ways per TSA rules,” she said in her Facebook post, reported by The Daily Mail. “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.”

The TSA debates the specifics of the incident, telling the Dallas News that the family was only waiting about 35 minutes and two extra TSA officers were called in to help explain the screening process and reassure the family.

[Image: Screenshot/DailyMail]

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7 Comments
M
mctaste January 5, 2020

So we should just be able to tell the TSA not to pat us down? Is that how she imagines the world works?

I
Irpworks January 5, 2020

Transportation Sucks Administration.

O
OUTraveling January 4, 2020

May we get rid of the TSA and move to an EL AL model of airline security?

G
Georgia Peach January 3, 2020

The TSA more than likely would not have allowed the other to be close enough to reassure him. They can claim to to be sensitive to special needs passengers, but the truth is they always blame the passenger and their families when they get upset.

B
bon mot January 1, 2020

Seriously? Mom, you were the problem, not the TSA. As someone with personal and professional experience with sensory processing concerns, I can firmly say that YOU SHOULD have prepared him for the possibility that this might take place, and then when it did, YOU SHOULD have gently talked him through the process to give him focus and reassurance. Instead you turned into a self-serving grandstander and blamed everyone else for your limitations. This is why your son said, "I don't know what i did." That statement was all about your behavior, not the TSA's.