polonius

I have as well.

T-the-B

I'd say that pretty much sums up the reality of the situation.

dorothybaez

I just took you up on that. Here's what I wrote:

Sunday, January 17, 2010
My Comment on the TSA Blog

There is currently a lively discussion going on the Travel Safety and Security forum at Flyer Talk about Mikey, the 8 year old Cub Scout who seems to be on a government terror watchlist. Blogger Bob, who writes for the TSA blog, seems to find Mikey's situation amusing.

In fact, here's a quote from Blogger Bob: "It’s inevitable that every several months or so, some cute kid gets their mug posted on a major news publication with a headline reading something like: “Does this look like a terrorist to you?” Anything involving kids or cats gets tons of mileage and everybody starts tweeting and retweeting that there’s an 8 year old on the no fly list."


There has been no shortage of comments on the TSA's blog. Here's a good one: "In the meantime, we still get to touch your children... all in the name of safety." - abelard

And we all know I can't help but have something to say. Here it is:

This is what I find most disturbing about the mistakes being made as to the "special" screenings of children.

As parents, we take pains to remind our children that they have the right to bodily integrity and control. "You don't have to let anyone touch you in 'places.'" (That's what we called it when my children were, well, children.)

Small children have a need to see their parents as "all powerful." They need this to feel safe in a world much bigger than they are. This is crucial to a child's psycho-social development. A young child needs to feel that her parents can outfight any "bad guy" who tries to bother or hurt her.

I cannot imagine standing for either of my boys being frisked by a stranger while crying with terror. Those who know me probably can't imagine it either. I tend to be aggressive when it comes to my children. Seriously aggressive.

I have to say I'm surprised that no child has fought back, or that no parents have stepped in to physically defend their children. It's only a matter of time.

Y'all need to shape up before somebody gets hurt.

dorothybaez

I kind of liked the video.

studentff

You've got an interesting point, particularly with regard to the child fighting back. (If the parents fight back, they'll just be detained, abused, and arrested, as we've seen when one spouse tried to defend another. )

However, a school-aged child who has been (properly) taught to react harshly to inappropriate touching by strangers or even to being separated from their parents in a way that suggests abduction could react against an unsuspecting TSO with a non-trivial amount of force, possibly to the point of causing moderate to serious injury. (At least in my childhood, kids were routinely taught what vulnerable body regions to target in the event of an assault or attempted abduction.)

While I don't which permanent injury on anyone, I do wonder how TSA would react. It would be a PR nightmare to have the kid detained, arrested, or fined for "assaulting a screener," and if the kid were cute enough and the parents smart enough, it would make a huge media story, particularly when it came out what the TSO was doing at the moment of the assault. Going after the parents likely wouldn't be any more successful, and while IANAL, I'm not convinced that common sense would allow the parents to be held liable/responsible for what the kid thought was an act of self defense.

n4zhg

Your first mistake is using "government" and "common sense" in the same thought. It has been amply demonstrated that bad publicity doesn't bother the TSA, in fact they seem to welcome it -- adds the all important "fear factor" to make the sheep obey. A kid that fights back is going to be made an example of, and the parents are going to go to jail for Faginy.

chollie

And I hope any child who feels uncomfortable feels free to really really exercise their lungs in protest.

Of course, we ll know what will happen...parents will be ordered to calm the child down (from a distance) or not fly...

The real message we'll be sending our kids is 'you have a right to protect your bodily integrity unless...someone claims to be in authority and to have the right to violate you - then you have to do what they say. And we can't even explain why, because if we try to and we aren't careful, we'll all really be in trouble.' After all, you can't explain to the child that they're being checked for explosives or weapons or something that bad people could use to bring the plane down - if you do it at the airport, you're probably in big trouble. If you do it at home and the child pipes up in front of TSA and says something like "I don't have a gun", you could still be in big trouble.

Sebastian_R

And this really is an issue for me. If we were in some kind of totalitarian country where it is all about shut-up or be locked-up I would understand (not approve but understand). But considering that we are in a country that prides itself with "freedom of speech" I find it disturbing that we all do have to self-censor ourselves in talking to our kids in order to avoid being detained and/or otherwise in trouble.

mre5765

Interesting thoughts posted here. Since Canada has mandated groping for children, we'll probably see some incidents very soon.

I think after the first kid fights back, the TSA and CATSA will ban kids from flying.

I can't see my son putting up with groping.

dorothybaez

I can't imagine "self-censoring" at all when talking with family. It's made for some odd moments when one of the kids would ask me something, er, interesting.

dorothybaez

My 15 year old is heavily involved with martial arts. He could do some serious damage with his bare hands. He's also over 6 feet tall (taller than Daddy) and can look extremely intimidating.

When he was little, he tended to LOUDLY make his feelings known when he thought something was wrong, especially if someone was being mistreated. I remember even as a toddler, he'd point and yell (really loud), "EVILDOER!"

Therefore I made sure he didn't fly until teenage hormones activated his inhibitions. It was a family joke that we were protecting "Mr. Righteous" from himself....

BubbaLoop

Newer posts are up on PV. It looks like Mikey´s mom is winning about 1000 to 0 against Blogger Bob.

doober

There is one post that supports TSA and BB.

BubbaLoop

Sorry, Mikey´s Mom = 1000, Bob = 1.

doober