Supervisor could have handled this situation better.

As EngIceDave pointed out, the laptop was out of the norm in that not only were the battery and hard drive missing, but the compartments were covered with tape. Nothing criminal here just out of the norm. TSOs are supposed to notify supervisors whenever they come across laptops that are out of the norm. Since 99.9999999% of the travelers do not pull out their batteries and hard drives out of their laptops, this constitutes "out of the norm." She notified her supervisor, and from what I gather, she informed him that the laptop cleared the ETD machine. All he had to do was give her the OK. Instead, he embarrassed her in front of a passenger and, more significantly, inhibited her from notifying her supervisor in the future. Real dumb move on his part.

If he thought it wasn't necessary to be notified, all he had to do was give her the OK and, once the passenger was away, pull her to the side and give her a better explanation, perhaps even explain a little more specifically when she should and should not notify him. Instead, if she comes across something else that isn't quite normal, she's going to hesitate before notifying her supervisor for fear of being humiliated.