Should TSA Have Patted Down a 3-Year-Old In a Wheelchair?
In a video that won’t be making the already unpopular TSA any new friends, a 3-year-old toddler in a wheelchair is seen being searched by a TSA agent at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.
Rocco was going with his parents, two siblings and grandparents to Disney World when he was pulled out of the security line. He was in a wheelchair because he had recently broken his leg.
Although his family was remarkably calm about the whole thing, and the agent who searched him was highly professional, the little boy looked scared and confused during his ordeal.
As you can see, the next person to be pulled out of the line is a senior citizen with a cane. Good to see TSA is tackling the real threats.
This video has re-ignited an old debate about who should get screened at airports. One the one hand, if terrorists and smugglers knew that the TSA never checks little kids in wheelchairs or senior citizens, they could use this information to do harm.
On the other hand, the chances that Rocco, traveling with his entire family to Disney World, was part of something nefarious seems about as close to zero as anything can be.
So should TSA agents be allowed to use more discretion in these cases? Or is what happened in the video just an unfortunate, but necessary, reality of the times we live in?