Global,
As it turns out, I was at T1 that morning; however, I was teaching class at our training room.

All I'll say is this: orchestrating breaks takes talent. Not so sure many of my fellow LTSOs understand the nuances of scheduling breaks and modifying the schedule according to the passenger flow. And some nervous nellie supervisors think that canceling breaks during peak periods is the way to go. I believe in slowing down breaks, even if it means having only one person leave the floor at a time. Usually, I stagger the breaks so that as one person leaves the floor, a replacement will return within 3 to 5 minutes. Point is that I believe there is a way to keep the breaks going and keep up with the passenger flow.

Couple of insights on T1: the special lane you mentioned is for selectees, airport employees, flight crew and persons with disabilities and/or other special needs (such as parents with strollers). Airport employees and flight crew process through rather quickly since they are the most experienced at getting in and out of the checkpoint. Depending on some outside factors, processing selectees can be fairly quick as well. However, sometimes we'll have a high volume of selectees. But those are usually the exception rather than the rule. What slows us down are PWDs, and understandably so. These are passengers with unique screening requirements such as wheelchairs, pacemakers or other special needs. And it takes time to screen them properly and courteously. Usually, the mix between the different type of people is pretty even: airport employees, flight crew, selectees and PWDs. However, every once in a while, we'll get a high volume of PWDs, and that will slow the lane down to a standstill. Get two or three people in a row in wheelchairs along with the other people requiring screening, it's going to slow things down significantly. There's no way around that; it SHOULD slow things down because PWDs require extra time and patience. While I'm not working T1 anymore, I'm pretty confident that the supervisors there share my expectation when it comes to screening PWDs.

One last thing, your post is dated May 29, that was the Tuesday after Memorial Day, and it was unusually busy for a Tuesday morning; should be no surprise on the first regular business day following a major holiday and first travel day for the Summer: lots of families and infrequent travelers that day, which also adds to slow processing at the checkpoint.

However, I agree with you that a Lead who is on the ball should be able to strike that delicate balance between taking care of the screeners and taking care of the passengers.

FWIW, I've been working on a class addressing LTSO duties and responsibilities. The situation you described happens to be one of the teaching scenarios.