TSA: Pat-Downs A Must For Some With Disabilities

[The Straight Story]

TSA: Pat-Downs A Must For Some With Disabilities


In an open letter to members of the disability community, a top Transportation Security Administration official says that some people with disabilities will be required to undergo “alternate screening techniques including pat-downs.”

The letter sent Monday was designed to clarify airport screening techniques ahead of the Thanksgiving travel rush. It comes as more airports shift their screening procedures from metal detectors to full-body scanners. Those who opt out of the machines or who trigger alarms are subject to intense pat-downs, which have been sharply criticized by some passengers who claim that they are too invasive.

However, TSA officials say some people with disabilities are ineligible for the body scanners and therefore must automatically undergo secondary screening measures. This includes individuals who use wheelchairs or other mobility devices and cannot stand, travelers with service animals, people who rely on a cane or walker and those unable to lift their arms to shoulder level for several seconds.

Similarly, travelers who are accompanying or assisting a person who cannot pass through the machines will also be subject to alternative screening measures, wrote Kimberly Walton, the TSA’s special counselor in the letter.

“There is nothing punitive about our measures; it just makes good security sense,” Walton wrote. Nonetheless, she acknowledged, “the pat-down you receive will be more thorough than what you may have received previously.”

http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2010/11/23/tsa-pat-downs-disabilities/11387/

[Karenina]

1. This is some SICK SHIT.

:puke:

[KamaAina]

2. They should have thought about this before spending million$$$ on Chertoff's shiny new toy

don't government procurement regs require that anything the Feds buy be accessible, under Section 504 of the Rehab Act?

Even under the old system, a wheelchair-using friend of mine quit flying because of all the pat-downs. Thing is, she lives on Maui. She'd have to fly to Honolulu even for some medical procedures, let alone to serve on state commissions like the one we were on together. Thanks for wrecking her life, TSA! :grr:

[blue_roses_lib]

3. Yep

I'm up in AK... have talked about moving to the lower 48 for some time, this is looking to be the straw that will make me get serious about it.

[LibDemAlways]

4. Picking on the disabled and others with health issues is just

low. I have pins in my ankle from an old surgery which would be visible on a scan. Thus, I'd be a candidate for a groping each time. Uh, no thanks.

Back in 2003 I watched while an elderly woman in a wheelchair had her shoes yanked off and was hoisted up, wanded, and given the bra strap once over. Her daughter stood nearby crying and telling the TSA goons to please stop harrassing her mother who had Alzheimers and looked absolutely terrified. Who knows what indignities she'd be subject to today.

Abuse of this type has absolutely got to stop.

[DCKit]

5. It was inevitable that AQ would resort to recruiting our disabled citizens.

Especially the elderly with mobility issues.

[lunatica]

6. It looks like a clear violation of the 4th Amendment

Amendment 4:
Right of search and seizure regulated:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

[Ezlivin]

7. This has been going on for YEARS

After airports put up metal detectors I had to have the "alternate screening technique"; the only other choice was not to fly.

Since I use a wheelchair, I've had to undergo this pat-down search every single time I fly. They make me lift myself off my wheelchair cushion so they can reach under me. Sometimes I get two people patting me down simultaneously. They have always been courteous, but I also am friendly and courteous to them so that they don't view me as a "problem."

This is nothing new, really.

[Bobbieo]

8. Then, these people should not fly!!! I know - I am one of them. Someone is going to have a stroke

or a heart attack from the stress. I know - I may be one of them, with an inoperable aneurysm.

[tpsbmam]

9. Count this one person who uses a wheelchair who won't fly -- fuck 'em.

Someone upthread posted about being singled out always since metal detectors were instituted. That's true to a degree, but in a FAR less intrusive way in my experience. And it wasn't 100%. I remember when I was still ambulatory going through umpteen airport screenings when I had an aircast on my lower leg, one that was similar to this:
I was traveling all over the country for interviews. It was no big deal -- they mostly wanded me and the aircast and that was it. They were uniformly nice and relaxed about it. But that was then. Since then but previous to the current insanity, both of my parents (they had both died by 2000/2004) traveled when using wheelchairs and I've traveled in the past using a wheelchair (again, before 2004). Again, no big deal -- I never felt particularly singled out or discriminated against.

Now? No fucking way will I travel -- they can take their special attention gropings of those of us with disabilities and shove it. The airlines will just have to do without my business. Last time I looked, my money was still as green as those without disabilities.

[Bobbieo]

10. How many disabled vets will this apply to? Jeez - what an insult!!

[tpsbmam]

17. All of them. And for those with head injuries, PTSD, etc

it has the potential to get very ugly. I can imagine a man/woman flipping out over this, particularly with certain kinds of brain injuries....thinking specifically of frontal lobe injuries resulting in emotional lability, impaired judgment, impaired inhibitory control, etc. Hell, I hate this for all vets with disabilities and all persons with disabilities.

[krabigirl]

11. Disgusting!

[IDemo]

12. Including diabetics wearing insulin pumps

a Juneau engineer who travels frequently to Anchorage, said he was disappointed to learn that he will get the pat-down every time because of his insulin pump.

http://www.adn.com/2010/11/23/1569949/alaska-escapes-tsa-scans-for-now.html

Disgusting.

[flyarm]

13. Not only this but anyone with Augmentation must disclose it to TSA ..so women who have had Breast

Cancer and had breast augmentation afterwards, must disclose it to TSA..and other women who have just had it for cosmetic reasons, must disclose it to someone other than their significant other and their Doctor.

What happened to our privacy rights and our medical business being between our doctors and ourselves?

Now anyone within ear shot of you and the TSA Agent will be privy to your body anatomy!

This is so against all of our rights!

[pecwae]

14. But, few seem to care.

We're asking for 'special screening' for daring to fly with medical conditions. Or we're 'inexperienced' flyers who don't know enough to shut up and take what's good for us.

I'm a cancer survivor with reconstruction. I'd never pass the damn x-ray machine even if I wanted to go through it. Now I suppose I'll need to disrobe and expose my surgical scars to TSA agents so that they can inspect my implants to keep everyone safe. But, that's apparently my fault for getting cancer in the first place and having re-constructive surgery in the second place. I don't think I need to use the sarcasm smiley, but just in case some don't get it :sarcasm:

I do want to thank you for bringing up with issue. There are far too many posters who are willing to dismiss those of us with conditions that will always subject us to being groped.

[flyarm]

21. I am a retired 33 yr Flight Attendant and I know many F/A's who have had reconstructive surgery

after suffering from Breast cancer.

I do believe in security, but this is beyond the pale. This is not security, this is destroying our Constitution and our rights, and by doing so , it does the opposite of making us secure.

Without our constitution in tact , we have no possibility of security!

[LisaL]

15. Furthermore doctors are under HIPAA which prohibits them

from disclosing medical information. Last I checked TSA agents aren't under HIPAA.

[flyarm]

20. correct and now they can cop a feel..isn't that lovely...NOT!

[Canuckistanian]

16. I hear terrorists LIKE to hacks their own limbs off

Just so that they can hide explosives in their prosthetics.

They teach it at those madrassas, I hear.

[dsc]

18. no but given the way we have been using drones to bomb I would bet

that there are a few people with prostetics who are mad at us.

[Canuckistanian]

19. That's a good point

There are many who had all their limbs BEFORE the indiscriminate bombings. You can't discount the revenge factor.