Jennifer Williamson is mad as hell after the TSA detained her young son for what she said was over an hour at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Sunday morning. She said the experience was "horrifying" and caused the family to miss their flight.
She posted a video on Facebook of a TSA agent patting him down, and people are still writing outraged comments, mostly in support of Williamson.
According to NBC 4 New York, she had asked the agents to screen him in "other ways" because he has Sensory Processing Disorder, which makes him sensitive to stimuli like lights, sounds, and textures.
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But in the video, the TSA agent screens Aaron in a way that many have called invasive. He pats him down from the back of his neck to his knees, reaching the front of his shorts and between his thighs. He also checks his waistband and the front of his shorts twice.
Here's the video, so you can judge for yourself.
"We were treated like dogs because I requested they attempt to screen him in other ways per TSA rules," Williamson wrote. "He has SPD and I didn't want my child given a pat down like this. Let me make something else crystal clear. He set off NO alarms. He physically did not alarm at all during screening, he passed through the detector just fine. He is still several hours later saying 'I don't know what I did. What did I do?'"
Williamson added that two airport police officers were also brought in to pat him down, "flanking him on each side."
The TSA released a statement in response:
"TSA allows for a pat-down of a teenage passenger, and in this case, all approved procedures were followed to resolve an alarm of the passenger’s laptop.
"The video shows a male TSA officer explaining the procedure to the passenger, who fully cooperates. Afterward, the TSA officer was instructed by his supervisor, who was observing, to complete the final step of the screening process.
"In total, the pat-down took approximately two minutes, and was observed by the mother and two police officers who were called to mitigate the concerns of the mother.
"The passengers were at the checkpoint for approximately 45 minutes, which included the time it took to discuss screening procedures with the mother and to screen three carry-on items that required further inspection."