A Grapevine, Texas, mom said her son, who has with sensory processing disorder (SPD), received a “horrifying” pat down while trying to go through security at the Dallas Fort-Worth (DFW) airport. His mother took to social media to share the experience, hoping to bring awareness to how the boy was treated.
Jennifer Williamson and her son, Aaron, were on their way to a board flight when she asked a TSA agent if there was a different way that he could search her boy. She didn’t want the agent to patdown Aaron, which would likely upset him. Yet, according to Williamson, not only did the “power tripping” TSA agent pat the boy down, but he took so long that mom and son missed their flight.
“They detained Aaron for well over an hour at DFW. (And deliberately kept us from our flight… we are now on an alternate) We were treated like dogs because I requested they attempt to screen him in other ways per TSA rules. He has SPD and I didn’t want my child given a pat down like this.” “Let me make something else crystal clear. He set off NO alarms.”
The infuriated mom recorded the incident, which showed an agent pat the little boy down three times in the same area. According to Williamson, the recorded video depicted only a fraction of the time that the agents spent “flanking” her son and patting him all over.
Williamson hopes that the video is shared as many times as possible. As of Tuesday, it already has over five million views and more than 40,000 shares.
According to the STAR Institute, SPD is a neurological disorder in which people who are affected cannot process sensory information properly. Neuroscientist A. Jean Ayres, PhD, said that SPD is a neurological “traffic jam” that stops certain brain signals from working properly. Something as simple as being touched can cause children and even adults with SPD to experience extreme anxiety and fear.
We have been through hell this morning. They detained Aaron for well over an hour at DFW. (And deliberately kept us from our flight… we are now on an alternate) We were treated like dogs because I requested they attempt to screen him in other ways per TSA rules. He has SPD and I didn't want my child given a pat down like this. Let me make something else crystal clear. He set off NO alarms. He physically did not alarm at all during screening, he passed through the detector just fine. He is still several hours later saying "I don't know what I did. What did I do?" I am livid. Please, share… make this viral like the other children's videos with TSA… I wish I had taped the entire interchange because it was horrifying. We had two DFW police officers that were called and flanking him on each side. Somehow these power tripping TSA agents who are traumatizing children and doing whatever they feel like without any cause, need to be reined in.
Posted by Jennifer Williamson on Sunday, March 26, 2017
[Feature Photo: Facebook]