Originally Posted by
Flahusky
Your children should have responded in the following way.
1. Calling out "Stranger Danger" 3 times, then refusing to speak to anyone other then you(parent) or a uniformed Law enforcement officer.
After this point you could guide the child's answers. Such as 'Yes, Michael you can tell the person your first and last name ONLY' 'No Michael we don't tell people were we are going or who we are seeing'
I am not a parent, so I can not advise if this would truly work. BUT suspect it would get enough attention to make things a little more interesting IF something should happen.
No, the Stranger Danger thing would not go over well; it would be a stunt that would draw the ire of both the TSOs (which can cause you disruptions and retaliation) and possibly the actual LEOs in the terminal (which can get you citations or even arrests).
Guiding the child's answers is not a bad idea, but only if you cave to the idea of the TSO's speaking directly to your kids in teh first place, which I do not. I'm with AAaLot on that point - TSOs have no authority to interrogate minor children without the permission of their parent or legal guardian.
Originally Posted by
doober
It's my belief that you need to sit down and have another long talk with your children. You need to emphasize that these people are NOT law enforcement, that their only job is to look for WEI, not kidnapped children, and that they, your children, are NEVER to tell anyone where they are traveling to.
That said, I can think of only one or two reasons why children should be subjected to air travel and the perils of the checkpoint.
I have to disagree with most of your post.
AAaLot's kids, according to his original post, are 11, 12, and 14 years of age. The 14yo will likely understand all of that abstract political rhetoric, but it's pretty likely that the 11 and 12yo kids will not. I'm not fond of child indoctrination, myself, and I believe that trying to teach such youngsters the intricacies of the limits of TSOs' powers under the constitution is not much more than indoctrinating them to OUR way of thinking rather than the TSA's way of thinking.
However, I cannot give better advice than to teach kids never to reveal travel details to anyone - destination, method, duration, reason, companions, none of it. I have been the victim of a crime related to such lapses myself in the distant past, and my family learned a very hard lesson from it that we have never forgotten.
As to whether someone wants to fly or subject their kids to the perils of the checkpoint, that's up to the individual parents. I don't like the idea of kids getting caught beween TSOs on a power trip and outraged parents who want to push back (as we all want to push back, within the limits of the law), but it AAaLot wants to take his kids to visit Grandma, see the Grand Canyon, attend a seminar, or throw a bunch of money at Mickey Mouse in Orlando, that's his decision.