Originally Posted by
SATTSO
I have post this before - and was flatly called a liar. However, since you asked...
I have seen knives, a stun gun, and drugs. Drugs I could care less about as far as my job goes. As far as being a citizen of this country, all of those count for some type of child endangerment as far as I am concerned.
The stun gun one really upset me. The father had a baby in a carriage, and insist the child could not be removed, but he had to make his flight. Eventually he removed his child (took a long time, and police were involved). Under the blanket the baby was laying on was a stun gun.
These are things I have personally seen. There are others I know about that are confirmed: Bullets and guns are not common, but every once in a while a parent does use their child to try to bring them through the checkpoint. Sad, isn't it?
Bolding mine: All of these items could be discovered with the WTMD if they were concealed on the childs "person," that is. No one, AFAIK, has objected to searching the child's conveyances (i.e. strollers, baby carriers, etc.) Children that are too young to walk through the WTMD on their own can be carried by an adult. Any screener, bright or not, sould be able to clear any alarm without a patdown.
What then could possibly trigger patdowns of children under 12-years-old? Explosives, of course. Couldn't that threat be cleared by having the child's adult companion "patdown" the child and then doing an ETD test on the adult? (Assuming no "false positives" from baby lotion, shampoo, conditioner, soap, diaper rash ointment, etc.)
IMHO, there would seem to be no excuse at all for patting down children. Period. Ever. Never.*
* Except, of course, unless the TSA's mission isn't really about keeping WEI off the airplanes, but is, in fact, part of a big, illegal, unConstitutional, drug interdiction effort.