Video: TSA Traumatizes Child In Wheelchair So Much She Doesn't Want To Go To Disney World
Lucy Forck, having a hard time.
A three-year-old girl who suffers from spina bifida was reduced to tears by TSA screeners on her way to a family vacation in Florida earlier this month. Annie Forck, the mother of little Lucy Forck, recorded the incident at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport with her cell phone, despite the TSA's orders that she desist. According to Lucy's father Nathan Forck, it all started when the TSA pulled Lucy aside for additional screening, including a "pat down" and "wheelchair swab."
That was bad enough, but then they took away "Lamby," Lucy's stuffed animal, causing her to burst in to tears. And that's when little Lucy Forck became the first child in the history of the world to utter the words, "I don’t want to go to Disney World." Her father tells the Daily News, "It was the first time we traveled anywhere together as a family. I guess everyone else takes the TSA’s scrutiny for granted, but we wanted to speak up and say that it doesn’t have to be like this."
Because of her medical condition, Lucy's spinal cord is exposed at the small of her back. Nathan Forck says he was concerned about TSA agents hurting his daughter during the pat down; in an interview with the Riverfront Times, he says he told the TSA screener, "You're not going to put your hand on my child without probable cause. Because she is in a wheelchair, we have to pat her down? That's discrimination against a disabled person—to just single her out for special treatment because she is disabled."
During the dispute, Lucy's mother was ordered—incorrectly, it turns out—to stop recording the search. She replied, "The problem is, I don’t allow anyone to touch my little daughter,” Annie said on the video. “It just seems ominous for you guys to suggest that you have to do this in the dark. That in and of itself seems very inappropriate."
A TSA spokesperson now says the agents were wrong to tell Lucy's mother to stop filming, because it's perfectly legal to film TSA agents as long as it doesn't interfere with their work. "TSA regrets inaccurate guidance was provided to this family during screening and offers its apology,” the TSA said in a statement. “We are committed to maintaining the security of the traveling public and strive to treat all passengers with dignity and respect. While no pat-down was performed, we will address specific concerns with our workforce."
After about 45 minutes of bad air, the TSA agents finally relented and agreed to search Lucy's wheelchair separately without her in it. Afterward, the TSA also admitted that trying to pat down a child this young was highly unusual. Lucy's father tells the Riverfront Times, "Our goal was to draw people's attention to it—to effect change. They apologized and said what they did was wrong." And in the end, Lucy got her Lamby back and changed her mind about not going to Disney World:
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Don't fly. Let the airlines go out of business. You need to be somewhere - take a train, drive, anything but fly. Boycott.
disqus_Nyxl0jdFe0
When that little girl had the presence of mind to say "Thank you" for her stuffed toy, my heart broke. She deserves so much better than what the US is becoming.
2BklynNative2
This really should not have happened but I feel that the parents and the TSA combined to make the situation bad for that child. The parents should have had a note from the child's medical provider like those with replacement knees, hips and shoulders and they should have called the airline and the airport the day before to find out if there was any special procedures involved.
This of course does not let the TSA off the hook, their should be some common sense involved.....
Just how many babies in wheelchairs have attempted to blow up plains, anyway? The sad thing is these agents are trained to follow the book, not the think for themselves and determine what is right, and what is wrong.
The TSA makes air travel---an already-uncomfortable, perk-free experience, thanks to financially-strapped airlines desperate to cram the maximum in human flesh within the fuselage of jumbo jets---truly unbearable. Who looks at the achingly slow security lines with anything even approaching relief and appreciation for "keeping us safe"? Rather than acting like assured professionals who might have had some training at ferreting out who's suspicious and who's not, these automatons indiscriminately make us all seem tainted---disabled children included. How wonderful it must be to go home at night, knowing that your existence has done little but to infuriate, annoy, frighten, and vex the public at large. When I see the plastic baggies containing bottles of shampoo come out, and the shoes come off (and realize that this charade may continue for the rest of my life), I think to myself that maybe an express ride to oblivion via an exploding 747 doesn't seem all that bad.
Just because I missed that it was the first time they flew with their daughter doesn't mean that it's not the first time the ever flew. Regardless, they seem more concerned with freaking out at the gate for 45 minutes instead of reacting like adults. For example, instead of whipping out a camera and taping it and getting more emotional and antagonizing the idiot TSA agents even more. They could have suggested taking the child out of the wheelchair and checking the wheelchair (which, in reality, is probably what they meant by the patting her down)
Over the River
The TSA is made up of sadistic Motherfuckers.
DonKeysHoTea
cocksuckers! worthless, scumbag motherfucking cocksuckers! the tube steak association, the testicle sauce applicators, thumbs stuffed up asses, tons of substantial asses.... get rid of these parasites!
Give someone with a GED a snazzy uniform and that's what we have here - looking forward to a new "reality" show with TSA agents - enough of the parking agents, repo-men, storage locker-auctions, pawn shops, duck-call makers, swamp people and ice road truckers, we need a TSA Reality Show - I gotta see how dumb these people are in real life.
Never happen, it would require cameras and actually taking pictures of what happens every day. If that came out in public the employees of the TSA would be lynched on a daily basis (at least one per day) until the agency was shut down.
what a fucking joke. these same people are showing up at train stations, subway stations, and the nations highways in the name of security. land of the free? bullshit.
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