Open letter to the TSA agent assigned to grope me, my daughter, and my little boys for the hypothetical situation that we ever fly anywhere with these new security procedures in place..

(updated to correct ambiguous wording in title of post.  This is a concern for the future -- I have not actually experienced this and am not planning to fly anywhere anytime soon.) 

 

- You will show me your ID badge with your full name, and I will write that name down, before you begin.

- I will be watching you, and if I see you do something that I believe may harm my children in any way, I will be reporting it in writing, with your name attached, to the airport, the airline, the TSA hierarchy, and local law enforcement.

- You may not take me or my children into a hidden room.  Whatever you do to us, you will do in full view of other citizens.

- You will put on a new pair of gloves before you touch any member of my family.

- I will loudly, politely, and accurately describe what you are doing while you are doing it.  

- You should know that I am not at all comforted by the suggestion that men are assigned to touch my boys' genitals and women are assigned to touch my girls. 

- I understand that the stated purpose of your job is to protect the public.  You should understand that MY job is to protect MY children.

- If your job really does require you to stick your hands in children's and teenagers' clothing, stroke their breasts and vulvas and penises through their clothing, or view them naked on a screen, then  I say your job is asking you to do something that is dehumanizing and morally wrong and, if I had that job, I'd resign.  I will not treat you with malice, but neither will I soften my words to make it easier for you to do a morally wrong and dehumanizing job.  The government couldn't abuse our children if no one would agree to be a paid abuser.

 

Comments

[Beth]

Gosh, this is awful. How horrible, how abhorrent.

I have certainly felt demeaned by this process when I've flown on my own but it had never occurred to me that I would need to protect my young son from similar. So for that awareness, I thank you.

And not that you need for anyone to say it but your rage is most certainly just.

[bearing]

Just for the record, we have NOT been through the new security procedures. I realize the "again" in my post may have implied that.

[Sara]

It happened just recently to a friend of mine. Her toddler and preschooler were searched without her permission, while she was in a glass-enclosed room.

It's infuriating, and I'd opt for the imaging. I don't want people touching me.

[Beth]

Ah, thanks for that clarification. I was feeling sad today for your family so that's a relief.

I frequently fly from London to the US and also fly frequently to various European destinations. The security in London has been the most aggressive with their physical sweeps of my body and I found the departure from the US to be less so. We have, however, flown to European destinations with our young son and have not been checked in this manner and I have never ever had anyone request to touch him. I suspect, however, that the frequency of which we travel excludes us from much suspicion.

Anyway, a bit of transatlantic experience. How incredible though and I will be much more aware of the potential from now on.

[Lisa]

My husband has a metal plate in his ankle, and as a result had to be patted down when we flew out of LAX in early October. We laughed about it at the time, but literally every inch of his body was touched, and his ankle was touched repeatedly and he had to show his surgical scar and explain the procedure he had. Thank God his scar wasn't in a private place. It seems wrong that he will now have to undergo this every time he flies. Not only that, his examination was time consuming, at least 5-10 minutes long (at the time I was worried about making our flight) and I wonder if, in this economy, it makes sense to administer lengthy pat-downs based on arbitrary things like having a piece of metal medical equipment in your body, which is extremely common.

I read on MSNBC that women who've had mastectomies are having to remove and display their prosthetic breasts. Which is completely outrageous. There has to be a better way.

[Beth]

Lisa, doesn't LAX use backscatter xray (or body scanners)? Surely this would have been sufficient to verify the presence of the metal? Perhaps the xray is only in international departures.

I have to say though that I would not want my child going through a backscatter xray either.

[Lisa]

Yeah, I think they were using a typical metal detector in the terminal we were in, but he beeped and was required to be patted down. This has never happened before this last time we flew (and LAX is our home airport and we fly frequently). Sorry if I wasn't clear -- this was not a situation where he turned down walking through the x-ray scanner.

[Kyle Cupp]

Why do you want to make TSA agents feel uncomfortable?

Effective letter, by the way. At least, I hope it would be effective.

[Delores]

I just cannot believe that we live in a country in which our gov't officials actually think this is okay -- that it is okay to sexually assault another human being. Because if a person was on trial for sexually abusing a minor and this was proven to have occurred, he or she would be found guilty. How did our country get to be this way?

[Christy Porucznik]

Yes, with the current set up it seems that the only people likely to enjoy their jobs as TSA agents should probably be in prison.

[hermes]

This treatment of the public is nothing short of Fascism, by definition. i am glad my grandparents did not live to see the day when their free movement in the usa would be contingent on their acquiescence to sexual molestation of themselves and their grandchildren. what could be a more unreasonable search? every citzen should be outraged and outspoken. i fear for our future.