TODDLER IN WHEELCHAIR GETS TSA PAT-DOWN
I am not sure what is more infuriating, how our government chooses to demolish our 4th amendment in the name and pretense of security, or how this little girl and her family were used by the government and then the media as pawns.
Notice in the video where the entire incident is posed with the question if something might possibly be wrong here with the TSA's common sense. Note to media: Whenever a handicapped 3 year old is patted down and her toys taken away, this is a violation, a disgusting, pathetic violation of her rights as a citizen. It is called the constitution not "common sense". Then, what really bothered is at the end of the video where it was decided that there was a "happy ending" because the little girl made it to see Mickey Mouse and all of the talking heads in the story are now happy and laughing. No everything is not okay fools. Where is the outrage that the government is out of control? ABC should have taken the government to task and been an arbiter for truth and justice. Instead you were ignorant at best and complicit at worse. Our government uses the media to condition the rest of us that, as long as we take our medicine like good little children, take our pat downs and humiliations we can later go to Disney World.
- W.E.
WFTV
MISSOURI —
A family’s run-in with Transportation Security Administration screeners at Missouri's Lambert-St. Louis International Airport as they were heading to Orlando on vacation was caught on camera, and is raising questions about airport security rules.
Annie Schulte said it all started when TSA agents asked to pat down her 3-year-old daughter, Lucy, who is disabled and in a wheelchair. The agents also wanted to screen Lucy’s wheelchair.
Schulte recorded the incident on her cellphone. In the video, Lucy begins to cry and says, "I don't want to go to Disney World."
What made the toddler so distraught, her parents said, was the run-in with the agents.
Agent: “It's illegal to do that.”
Schulte: “You can't touch my daughter, unless I can record it.”
Schulte said she asked to record the incident.
“To me, it was pretty offensive because I was really tuned in. When she said that, immediately I'm like, ‘OK, hold on, something doesn't seem right.’ So, I did tell her I was going to wait because I was going to grab my phone,” said Schulte.
Lucy’s father said, “It bothers me that my daughter was singled out specifically because she is in a wheelchair.”
But the family said the final straw was when agents refused to return Lucy's stuffed animal named Lamby, even though it had already been scanned.
The TSA apologized, telling ABC News it "regrets inaccurate guidance was provided to this family during screening."
The family said it accepted the apology, but wants screeners to receive more training to prevent incidents such as theirs from ruining another vacation.
In the end, Lucy was able to get to Disney World, where she met Mickey Mouse.
Notice in the video where the entire incident is posed with the question if something might possibly be wrong here with the TSA's common sense. Note to media: Whenever a handicapped 3 year old is patted down and her toys taken away, this is a violation, a disgusting, pathetic violation of her rights as a citizen. It is called the constitution not "common sense". Then, what really bothered is at the end of the video where it was decided that there was a "happy ending" because the little girl made it to see Mickey Mouse and all of the talking heads in the story are now happy and laughing. No everything is not okay fools. Where is the outrage that the government is out of control? ABC should have taken the government to task and been an arbiter for truth and justice. Instead you were ignorant at best and complicit at worse. Our government uses the media to condition the rest of us that, as long as we take our medicine like good little children, take our pat downs and humiliations we can later go to Disney World.
- W.E.
WFTV