PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

If you haven’t seen it till now, be prepared for a shock when you look at what the TSA is subjecting America’s children to at airports. Why is this being done? Well, some very dumb policies were set up during the G.W. Bush administration and the Obama people haven’t had the courage, or the knowledge, to push away from those draconian procedures. In fact, they’ve gotten worse as “tough cop” John Pistole runs the TSA and refuses to even acknowledge that any consideration of changes are necessary. After looking at the video, please scroll down for a further TerryReport comment. More information can be found about efforts to change this at the US Travel Association.

Looking at the video more than once, if you can take it, reveals that the TSA person rubs the backside of the little girl with four separate strokes. Aside from any other motivation, this is what happens when the employees are treated like morons with no discretion. They are taught they must do these things in a certain, repetitive way or they will be fired.

Here are some rules (my own) that I believe parents should follow:

1. Never allow your children to be groped by airport security. Unless you are flying somewhere when your life actually depends on it, do not permit groping by strangers under any circumstances.

If you do decide to submit, remember these factors:

2. Never allow your children to be repeat groped if you submit to the first procedure. One woman, a reporter, said the TSA person told her he had to check her son again. Don’t allow this.  This woman gave her consent for a virtual sexual assault on her child.

3. Don’t move away from a small child and leave that child in the hands of a stranger. You have a right to stay close to your child and offer the protections of a loving parent. Staying next to your child is a parent’s way of offering reassurance that everything will be okay (even if it won’t). Parents stay with small children for dental work and medical exams. Being ordered away by the TSA doesn’t mean that is what you should do.

4. Ask for a supervisor to be present. Ask the supervisors why you are being subjected to extra screening. If they can’t or won’t give you an answer, do not submit.

5. Remember that protecting your child is the highest duty a parent can have and cannot be relinquished to anyone. It is worth being threatened with arrest or being arrested, if there is no other choice. Since you are pledged to protect your child with your very life, why back down at petty threats from airport people?

6. Understand that you are not “interfering with security” by insisting that your child be treated, first, with respect and, second, with consideration for what a child is: someone who cannot fully understand what is happening to them and why. You are not making the airport less safe for anyone, you are protecting your child.

Doug Terry, 4.13.11

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