Woman, 85,'humiliated' by airport strip search
Source: Agencies |
December 5, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
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AN 85-year-old woman claimed yesterday that she was injured and humiliated when strip searched at an airport after she asked to be patted down instead of going through a body scanner.
Lenore Zimmerman said she was taken to a private room and made to take off her clothes after she asked to forgo the scanner as she worried it would interfere with her defibrillator. She missed her flight and had to take one more than two hours later, she said.
"I'm hunched over. I'm in a wheelchair. I weigh under 110 pounds (50 kilograms)," she said from her winter home at a seniors community in Coconut Creek, Florida. "Do I look like a terrorist?"
However, the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement that no strip search was conducted.
"While we regret that the passenger feels she had an unpleasant screening experience, TSA does not include strip searches as part of our security protocols and one was not conducted in this case," the statement read.
Zimmerman was dropped off by her son at Kennedy Airport for a 1pm flight on Tuesday to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on JetBlue, she said. She arrived at the ticket counter around 12:20pm and headed for security in a wheelchair.
She's been traveling to Florida for at least a decade and has never had a problem being patted down until now, she said. "I worry about my heart, so I don't want to go through those things," she said, referring to the advanced image technology screening machines now in place at the airport.
She said she was taken into a private room by a female agent and made to strip.
"Private screening was requested by the passenger, it was granted and lasted approximately 11 minutes," the TSA statement read. "TSA screening procedures are conducted in a manner designed to treat all passengers with dignity, respect and courtesy and that occurred in this instance."
The private screening was not recorded.
A review of closed-circuit television at the airport showed proper procedures before and after the screening were followed, a TSA spokesman said.
Zimmerman, who spends half the year in Long Beach, New York, said she banged her shin during the process and it bled "like a pig," partly because she is on blood-thinning medication. She said an emergency medical technician patched her up, but she was told to see a doctor when she arrived in Florida to make sure the wound didn't get infected.
"I don't know what triggered this. I don't know why they singled me out," she said.
Her son, Bruce, said: "My mother is a little old woman. She's not disruptive or uncooperative. I don't understand how this happened."
Lenore Zimmerman said she was taken to a private room and made to take off her clothes after she asked to forgo the scanner as she worried it would interfere with her defibrillator. She missed her flight and had to take one more than two hours later, she said.
"I'm hunched over. I'm in a wheelchair. I weigh under 110 pounds (50 kilograms)," she said from her winter home at a seniors community in Coconut Creek, Florida. "Do I look like a terrorist?"
However, the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement that no strip search was conducted.
"While we regret that the passenger feels she had an unpleasant screening experience, TSA does not include strip searches as part of our security protocols and one was not conducted in this case," the statement read.
Zimmerman was dropped off by her son at Kennedy Airport for a 1pm flight on Tuesday to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on JetBlue, she said. She arrived at the ticket counter around 12:20pm and headed for security in a wheelchair.
She's been traveling to Florida for at least a decade and has never had a problem being patted down until now, she said. "I worry about my heart, so I don't want to go through those things," she said, referring to the advanced image technology screening machines now in place at the airport.
She said she was taken into a private room by a female agent and made to strip.
"Private screening was requested by the passenger, it was granted and lasted approximately 11 minutes," the TSA statement read. "TSA screening procedures are conducted in a manner designed to treat all passengers with dignity, respect and courtesy and that occurred in this instance."
The private screening was not recorded.
A review of closed-circuit television at the airport showed proper procedures before and after the screening were followed, a TSA spokesman said.
Zimmerman, who spends half the year in Long Beach, New York, said she banged her shin during the process and it bled "like a pig," partly because she is on blood-thinning medication. She said an emergency medical technician patched her up, but she was told to see a doctor when she arrived in Florida to make sure the wound didn't get infected.
"I don't know what triggered this. I don't know why they singled me out," she said.
Her son, Bruce, said: "My mother is a little old woman. She's not disruptive or uncooperative. I don't understand how this happened."
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