D-Case of the Week, February (3): TSA (New Jersey)

The Transportation Security Administration forced a 4 year old boy to remove his leg braces and go through the metal detector by himself last March. The boy was born 16 weeks prematurely and just started to walk last March b/c his ankles are malformed and his legs have low muscle tone. Despite all this the TSA screeners insisted that the boy take off his braces and walk through the detector unaccompanied; his mother wanted to help him through but TSA wouldn’t let her, instead the boy had to stumble through the detector himself. To top it all off this was the boy’s first flight and he was on his way to Disney World for a birthday celebration. TSA just recently came out with an apology which was only a reaction to a column written about the matter.