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[QUOTE=Bart]Let me first tell you the correct procedures for future reference:
[INDENT]1. You do not have to remove a garment if it makes you uncomfortable because of wearing a tanktop, camisol or other item not intended as outer wear. Tell the TSA screener that you do not wish to remove your outer garment. You may be required to undergo additional screening depending on the thickness of the material or screener's judgment. While at secondary screening, you again do not have to remove the garment, but you may be subject to an upper torso pat-down search. Even so, the breast area will be patted down ONLY if the hand wand alarms in that area. Otherwise, the screener will pat down your upper torso along the sides of the body, the abdomen and entire back. However, things like scarves or garments tied around the waist must come off and be x-rayed.[/QUOTE]
Originally Posted by Bart
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I am female. I was traveling through CMH in a suit. I was traveling in a suit and carrying a raincoat. I mindlessly put change into the suit jacket pocket. There was so much confusion at the x-ray machine (people taking off their shoes, not having enough baskets, the TSA x-ray reader moving stuff in and out of the machine, the loud recorded announcements about who knows what--you eventually don't even listen any longer) that even had some recorded voice told me to take stuff out of my "pockets" I wouldn't have even heard them. So I go through innocently (I am 5'1'', petite in size, I was well-dressed) and the young man said to me, "Ma'am, you'll need to take your "coat" off and send it through the machine." I said, my coat is already on the other side. "No, ma'am [and he points to my suitcoat/jacket/blazer] and says "that", you have something in your pocket." I asked, "What?" "I don't know ma'am (God, I hate that word--it is so condescending and nasal) you'll have to send you coat through." "Can't I take whatever is in my pocket out and go through again?" "No, ma'am."
Suitcoats/jackets/ blazers need to go through the xray whether they have something in the pocket or not. If one chooses not to send their jacket through, then they need to be refered to additional screening.
I had a sheer shell on that was too tight because I was in the middle of my monthly period and I was HUGE. So off I go to the glass prison cell, petrified because I had just refused to do something TSA told me to do. (Yes, petrified. I guess they have too much power over me and I don't like being rendered powerless, no woman does. Can't there be some civility in TSA to be sensitive to how WOMEN feel about this? We're not men and it really does make a difference.)
Don't feel petrified, you had the power to refuse, didn't you?
So they start moving chairs around, and I think, God, now what? For some reason I had to be searched facing the BELT and if I understood the discussion properly so another TSA WOMAN could "observe." Great. A freak show.
I don't know about the observation part, but a person should always be searched facing the belt, because that's where their belongings are.
The woman searching me said, "You're going to have to take of your jacket off or I will have to pat you down (or whatever the expression is that they use)" (By the way, I am in my stocking feet the whole time, my phone is lying on top of my real coat, and my purse and my bag are at the end of the belt just waiting for someone take something, and I can't talk because I'm about to cry. Even as I write this, I'm crying. I seldom cry so this really affected me badly.) She NEVER said .... only if the wand goes off. Never. It was either/or.
That is correct procedure. The jacket either needed to be xrayed or you needed to be patted down. She was giving you your options so you could have a choice. Also, since she made sure to have you facing the belt you were able to keep a watchful eye on your items so that they would not be taken.
So she basically forced me to make a choice facing the entire TSA lineup which for some reason were standing at the exit of the belt watching. By the time I left, I was in tears and I cried for 30 minutes. I was a wreck. I could barely think about it for the four hours it took me to get to BWI without tearing up. And I was made to feel that it was my fault because I wouldn't parade through the gate with my jacket off. So as penance TSA puts me on public display.
Please. You are seriously over-reacting. People get wanded and patted down every single day. You getting secondary is no different than anyone else getting secondary. If you were so concerned that people were watching you, why didn't you ask if this procedure could be done in private?
I'm considering not taking the job even if they offered it to me because I no longer want to travel (and I love to travel hence why I applied for this job), especially through that airport. Is this what the government wants? For their own people to be afraid of them and for people to avoid airline travel?
Please don't feel this way. If they offer the job, take it! Don't pass it up because of this. The next time you pass through the airport, you'll know what to expect and can dress accordingly.
Beyond the emotional aspect of this, I though I had made a legitimate request, to take the money out and walk through again. Why couldn't I just be treated as a human being forgetting to take something out of their pocket? I used to wait forever (yes, I know, pre-9/11) it seemed (when I was an FF) while men went back and forth, back and forth, through the detector gate and it was nearly always "change in the pocket" or the belt buckle. Why are we all guilty until proven innocent? Wouldn't it have taken less time to just let me take the change out, run it through, me through the gate and be done with it? Instead I have to be intimidated and put on public display? And this young man who told me to put my COAT through? Aren't TSA staff taught the proper terms for clothing? It was partly his error that scared me. I had no idea what he was talking about.
Because the change wasn't the real issue; the jacket was the real issue. Even though I'm sure his demeanor probably could have been better asking you to remove your jacket (regardless of whether it contained change or not) was the right procedure.
The U.S. criticizes Europe for "typing". At least there I'm treated as the honest person I am. In the U.S., democracy is now guilty until you're patted down and judged, and victimizated. Lord. What has the American public done to deserve this? Does it really have to be that way? Aren't you training people to use any semblance of common sense?
We don't believe any one is guilty necessarily. We don't judge or victimize people. For the most part, we just want to get you through, and on with your day.