TSA Pats Down a Kentucky 6-Year-Old Girl (w/ Video)

How should Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screen young children that don’t understand what’s going on? It’s one of the most sensitive issues the TSA faces. It has upset parents and all walks of people who don’t agree this an acceptable way to “screen” children.
Here is a family from Kentucky who were traveling through Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans last week. This video is causing a stir, and since it’s posting on YouTube on April 9, it has had over 100,000 views.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3sH1GaO_nw]
The mom, Selena Drexel, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that they were returning from vacation when their daughter, Anna, underwent the pat-down. Anna’s father, Todd Drexel, said his daughter started to cry afterward.
TSA spokesman Nicholas Kimball told AOL Travel News that the agency “has reviewed the incident and determined that this officer followed proper current screening procedures.” However, he notes the TSA is in the midst of planning changes in line with TSA Administrator John Pistole’s call for risk-based security screening. The agency said in a statement,”as part of this effort TSA has been actively reviewing its screening policies and procedures to streamline and improve the screening experience for low-risk populations, such as younger passengers.”
But a congressman is questioning whether the incident seen in the video did in fact violate rules that call for a “modified” pat-down for children 12 and under. “This conduct is in clear violation of TSA’s explicit policy not to conduct thorough pat-downs on children under the age of 13,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security.
This is not the first time that the TSA has been criticized and ridiculed for the mistreatment of children under the age of  12 and have said they will make no exceptions for any class of passengers.
QUOTES COURTESY OF:  AOL – TIME WARNER and The American Broadcasting Company (ABC).