Originally Posted by
nco4242
From reading all this I guess the term I used strip search was wrong or not depending on who is responding. To my mind it is when they ask to remove clothing but perhaps I am incorrect. I was not asked to remove my bra or underwear.
I have no complaint with the way the ladies did it as I said it was professional. The man did not come back into the room until I was fully redressed and I have no complaints as to his treatment of me with the exception that he did not answer my question.
I am just really wondering what they think they found on me that gave them this positive test.
I never though people would get so worked up over this issue I though this was just some fluke and I happened to be the person involved.
No, no, no.
I'm glad that you felt everyone was professional and were not traumatized by this, but the bottom line is that your privacy was severely violated, and it appears that the TSA was far, far outside the bounds of their authority.
Several people on this board have reported positive swab tests, and even "resolution patdowns" which were required to take place in private rooms. Aside from a few early reports of women with skirts being forced to remove them, no one has reported being asked to remove clothing. Even the TSA peeps on this board have indicated that absent a clear and present danger, passengers are not asked to remove clothing, and in fact, are not allowed to do so. Further, one would think* that were a TSA person convinced that a passenger needed to remove clothing to be "cleared", that TSA person would wish to have an actual police office present - you know, for their own protection.
If you can find the energy and motivation, I (and everyone else here) would strongly encourage you to pursue all avenues of reporting this abhorrent situation. Start with the official channels (airport-specific TSA office, online and phone reporting to national TSA office, etc...), and move on to the airlines and lobbying groups like the ACLU, NOW (although they've not really shown too much of an interest here), and so on.
Again, I'm glad that you don't personally feel violated. But please don't think that "it just wasn't your day" or something. This was unacceptable and should not have happened. (And, sorry to say, you will likely never find out exactly what caused the alarm.)
*Of course, "one would think" a lot of things about this organization that prove not to be true...