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WAR ON COMMON SENSE

TSA Makes Wheelchair-Bound Toddler Cry & Say 'I Don't Want to Go to Disney World'

She was detained and had her stuffed toy confiscated, as captured by her parents on video

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by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t

Image: ABC News

Not for the first time, the TSA is taking heat for invasively searching a disabled child.

The video of 3-year-old Lucy Forck was made by her parents after she was taken aside for an extra search, during which she became extremely distressed.

The parents disputed the need for a patdown and wheelchair swab, and in the end carried Lucy through the screening devices. The whole ordeal took something like 45 minutes, with Lucy, who has spina bifida, crying all the while.

Folks online are especially outraged by two things: the TSA agents took away Lucy's stuffed animal Lamby, and managed to get her to say "I don't want to go to Disney World" - words we imagine few 3-year-olds have uttered.

Lucy's parents are bothered by the fact that Lucy's disability was given as the reason for the search. "They specifically told me that they were singling her out for this special treatment because she's in a wheelchair," said her dad Nathan. "If a cop came up and searched her on the street, that would be a violation of the Fourth Amendment. But because you're in an airport, it's okay."

TSA agents told the parents it was illegal for them to film the search, but her father, an attorney, suspected that statement was false and carried on filming. He was correct - it's legal to film TSA searches.

The TSA later apologized for providing the family with "inaccurate guidelines" during the screening, which doesn't seem quite adequate. According to their published guidelines, all wheelchair-bound passengers are subject to a patdown.

Via the New York Daily News and ABC.
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Should small children in wheelchairs be patted down by the TSA?

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Comments (view in Forum)

  • Neo_NtheMatrix
    !
    This is disgusting. TSA is just a bunch of weirdos.

    How does violating a wheelchair-bound little girl protect us from terrorism? Why can't we profile the real terrorists who want to cause great harm to the American people? Is it because we're too politically correct to go after the real culprits? PC is really killing America.

    Why are we traumatizing a little angelic girl who has already gone through enough in her short life? I say the TSA agents should have been fired on the spot. TSA should be disbanded. This is one of the few times I agree with father and son Pauls (Ron & Rand), TSA is taking America backwards. Oooh, this makes me mad. I'm glad it wasn't a child of mine. I'd be posting this from a jail cell.
  • PNWest
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    I agreed with most of your post up until you nearly quoted Ted Nugent about posting from jail. Overall I agree with more than half of your statement which is above average. It makes me mad too.
  • Zazziness
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    Would profiling have stopped Timothy McVeigh? I'm sorry to break this to you but clean cut white people can be terrorists, too.
  • No_Bama
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    @Zazziness Last time I checked, Timothy McVeigh wasn't a 3 yr old disabled girl in a wheel chair. Your assertion is completely ridiculous and disingenous, are you really this desperate for attention?
  • Zazziness
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    @No_Bama How were they do know she was really disabled? How were they to know the "parents" didn't have a caseful of explosives taped under her chair? Neo says they could tell because the child and parents weren't the right race to be terrorists. I say you can't tell squat using a person's race as a guideline.
  • u
    Yank
    !
    @Zazziness did Timothy McVeigh hijack a plane? He rented a truck, and we still don't have a TSA agent at every U-haul.

  • View all 56 replies >

  • Fishbone345
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    @PoliticalSpice Bush created it and Obama does nothing to make things right like he promised. He did a great job with Gitmo huh?
    Stop protecting people in the wrong by pointing out failures of others. We know Bush f$@ked up, he not in office right now. The person who is, the one that promised our Liberties meant something, isn't doing anything. That is failure.
  • PoliticalSpice
    !
    @Fishbone345 the tone of miketost post was that of Putting this incident right at obamas feet as if he personally did it. While I am no fan of obama that was an outrageouscway of responding and I called him on it with no apology...
  • Fishbone345
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    @PoliticalSpice He's doing nothing to make the TSA responsible for this type of shit. You think this is the first? First taped is more like it.
    Obama is the boss, he gets everything that comes with that. Including answering for failures of a group that falls under your direct jurisdiction.
  • PoliticalSpice
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    @Fishbone345 That would make rand paul responsible for stomping a woman into a coma who had the termerity to protest him. Clearly libertarians are no better then obama...

  • View all 38 replies >

  • stepped_in_it
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    This is what we get:
    1) when the federal government runs anything.
    2) when 58,000 "agents" are hired almost overnight!
    3) when federal job security is far better than any job in the country (except politicians)
  • stepped_in_it
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    @kirbstomp1 Think you had it right the first time >>> "pardon". Sounds like TSA agents are "pardoned" for the actions no matter the severity of that action....neo's words, sad, so sad!
  • bsking
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    Yeah I saw this last night it was pitiful. the idiots that work for the TSA even gave the mother a hard time for videotaping it. those morons should be fired immediately but the government workers so they won't be meanwhile they will let a 20 something Muslim on the plane carrying a backpack and not pull him out of line because they don't want to offend him. the TSA is stocked full of morons like that.
  • PrettyToez
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    Last time I checked, "muslim" was a religion, not a race....so in other words, the TSA wouldnt have pulled 20 thousand black, white, asian, arab, hispanic, or indians with a backpack out of line to screen them?? Gosh. They must have some new high tech state-of-the-art scan equipment in airports now if they can decipher "muslims" from others!!
  • jessejaymes
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    @jaybebo84 You'd think in a security sensitive job and for what they pay/benefits they would demand their agents be reasonably fit. Guess not.
  • u
    tomincali
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    when people get tired of this crap they will stop flying,enough does it and the pain will start being felt. thing is their choice to get on board. whats next searching drivers who commute? the way things are going it may be their next step.

    funny thing about the whole mess and who and what started it all,the folks who let the terrorists in and refused to go after all visa over stayers are the same who pushed this crap.
  • Knightkore
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    Very true....read this and I'm getting tired of the weak-willed American people and our flacid government not doing anything about this....if ever the 2nd amendment needed to be called into action would be with the TSA....

    You see a TSA agent pulling stuff like this on a child and Biden should be there shooting his shotgun in air at least....

    The TSA is quickly becoming the Nazi troops....

    Pathetic....what about all YOU so called Americans....why aren't YOU standing up....not flying is only part of it....

    There are MORE of us than there are of them....remember that....will this girl be the last one violated?
  • Zazziness
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    It all seems very distressing until we exempt wheelchairs and find some idiot terrorist uses the loophole to destroy people. And if you think children and/or children's things like toys, carriages, and wheelchairs have never been used to hide weapons, I'm sad to say you're wrong.
  • jessejaymes
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    OR, common sense would say you ask the parent to pick up the child and take the wheelchair to be scanned and give it back with a big smile and give the kid a sucker and tell them to have a great time at disney world. But that would be far too much trouble right? Far easier to deal with the public fallout right?
  • Zazziness
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    @jessejaymes Oh, I agree it could have been handled with better diplomacy. But you try standing on your feet all day long, processing thousands of grumpy people while knowing that if you make a mistake, hundreds of people will die. It seems to me that could wear a person down, after awhile.
  • jessejaymes
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    @Zazziness Who gives a shit if they stand on their feet all day processing thousands of grumpy people. They get excellent pay, great benefits and they have absolute power. If their feet hurt then maybe they should lose some damn weight since most of them are grossly obese. If they don't like the job then they can always go pork out at McDonalds when the boss isn't looking.
  • Zazziness
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    @jessejaymes Man, Jesse, you sure are a nasty curmudgeon these last few days -- just full of hate for people. Are you feeling OK?
  • No_Bama
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    @jessejaymes I highly doubt Zazziness actually believes any of the nonsense she is spouting, just arguing for the sake of arguing.(It's a trap!)

  • View all 46 replies >

  • AMSCountryboy
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    This girls dad must be a damn bhuddist.... there is NO WAY i would have kept my cool.... i would have freaked out, got tazed and got thrown in jail but i swear i would have crushed which ever TSA agent looked to be in charge first.
  • u
    norezen
    !
    How much are the parents to blame? They should have known they would be subjected to security measures. They could have rented a car, taken a train or bus. They invited this disaster and so I blame them completely for subjecting their child to this.
  • u
    Slowmo
    !
    I wish people would get mad enough about this kind of stuff to actually do something. If you don't have to, don't fly. Yeah I know..the terrorists. But damn. I mean, was there a reason for suspicion? We are all having our freedoms and privacy attacked and taken away from us because of bad guys. And you know, I don't think that our government really minds doing it.
  • keyfitter
    !
    I haven't flown in over four years and will never as long as the TSA brownshirts are at the airports. If everyone had the nerve and a few convictions of what it is to be a real American, they would boycott the airlines as well. Then I bet that there would be some changes. I bet the terrorists are laughing at all of the sheep who put up with this kind of crap.
  • No_Bama
    !
    Political Correctness nonsense at it's finest. Search everyone and molest a 3 yr old little girl in the processs that you know darn good and well isn't out to hijack or blow up a plane, instead of doing background checks and profiling high risk individuals. All in the name of not being racist by offending the people who hate us and wish to do us harm. Absolutely pathetic.
  • Zazziness
    !
    "...you know darn good and well isn't out to hijack or blow up a plane..."
    How do you know that her parents weren't violent terrorists? Telepathy? Dice roll? Magic 8 Ball?
  • jessejaymes
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    @Zazziness Provide the link that for the last time a terrorist took their wife and disabled child on a plane and blew it up. ONE TIME
  • keyfitter
    !
    Yep, just another day in the Land Of The Detained and the Home Of The Cowards. Next, when the government run media comes out with a story about bombs made into suppositories, everyone can bend over for the TSA. What a bunch of sheep, the American people have become.
  • Vance1
    !
    The TSA are basically The Obama brown shirts...a group of overbearing Thuggs.
    Airports should give this Nazi TSA the boot in the arse, and go with Private Security!!!
    Union people always suck doing a JOB!! They feel privlidged and entitled!!
  • DARSB
    !
    1. The TSA was created under the Bush administration. 2. They wear blue or white shirts. 3. Noun-verb-blame Obama.
  • PNWest
    !
    @Vance1 "Typical liberal = Blame Bush" - yes blame Bush for a program that Bush started. You can start blaming Obama already. Blame him for killing bin Laden, blame him for saving GM & Chrysler, blame him for turning the economy around, blame him for getting us out of Iraq and Afghanistan.......
  • ST_Louie_Sue
    !
    Like I've said over and over again, Bush will be blamed for everything as long as there is an incompetent dem around. The only thing that freaks a dem out worse than Bush is Cheney.

  • View all 7 replies >

  • armenia4ever
    !
    Seriously, why aren't more liberals as well as more conservatives in government speaking out about this crap?

    The only one I've seen say anything about it is Rand Paul and the TSA went after him for it.
  • u
    callmecrazy
    !
    Having flown both before and after 9/11, its a world of difference now. I think when you make the decision to fly these days you should consider that. Not saying its right or wrong, its the way it is, be prepared for it or find another mode of travel.
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