Angry mom says TSA airport pat down traumatized her son
- 7 years ago
DALLAS — The mother of a disabled boy says her son is still in shock after he was put through an overly thorough airport security check.
Mom Jennifer Williamson posted a video to Facebook on Sunday that shows her son Aaron being patted down by a TSA agent in the security line at Dallas Forth Worth airport.
The official appears to pat the boy down in several areas more than once, and it makes for some pretty uncomfortable viewing.
In an accompanying post, Williamson accused the TSA of treating her family like dogs and traumatizing her son.
Williamson said Aaron has Sensory Processing Disorder, a condition that causes sensations to be incorrectly processed by the nervous system. This can lead someone with SPD to feel distressed or have inappropriate responses to being touched.
With that in mind, Williamson said she asked officials not to pat down her son.
She said he passed through a metal detector without the alarm going off. But the TSA agents went ahead anyway.
A livid Williamson said her son still doesn’t understand what he did wrong. What’s more, the process resulted in the family missing their original flight.
The video has been viewed more than 4 million times on Facebook. While some online commentators said the TSA agents were just doing their jobs, the overwhelming response was one of anger.
Some of the milder comments said the pat down went too far. Others however, questioned the mentality and the motivation of the official seen in the video.
In a statement, the TSA said the agent followed “all approved procedures … to resolve an alarm of the passenger’s laptop,” Fort-Worth newspaper the Star-Telegram reported.
Mom Jennifer Williamson posted a video to Facebook on Sunday that shows her son Aaron being patted down by a TSA agent in the security line at Dallas Forth Worth airport.
The official appears to pat the boy down in several areas more than once, and it makes for some pretty uncomfortable viewing.
In an accompanying post, Williamson accused the TSA of treating her family like dogs and traumatizing her son.
Williamson said Aaron has Sensory Processing Disorder, a condition that causes sensations to be incorrectly processed by the nervous system. This can lead someone with SPD to feel distressed or have inappropriate responses to being touched.
With that in mind, Williamson said she asked officials not to pat down her son.
She said he passed through a metal detector without the alarm going off. But the TSA agents went ahead anyway.
A livid Williamson said her son still doesn’t understand what he did wrong. What’s more, the process resulted in the family missing their original flight.
The video has been viewed more than 4 million times on Facebook. While some online commentators said the TSA agents were just doing their jobs, the overwhelming response was one of anger.
Some of the milder comments said the pat down went too far. Others however, questioned the mentality and the motivation of the official seen in the video.
In a statement, the TSA said the agent followed “all approved procedures … to resolve an alarm of the passenger’s laptop,” Fort-Worth newspaper the Star-Telegram reported.