TSA's Full Body Screening on 12 Year Old Girl Without Parents' Consent

I have cut and pasted below my letter to the editor of USA Today.  Additionally, the St. Pete Times will be running our story on Sunday.  Here it what happened:

On June 26, 2010 our 12 year old daughter was traveling home from Siesta Key with family friends (adults) without us.  She was stopped at the airport security by the TSA and taken out of line for what they termed a “random” full body imaging screen.  At no time did the TSA inform the adults she was with what they were doing, and at no time did they tell our 12 year old daughter or the adults she was traveling with that she could refuse the scan.  And, since we were not present, there was no parental consent given to the TSA prior to this search, which essentially is a strip search of a 12 year old child.  We do not know if the scanner was male or female.  Our daughter respects authority and airport security and willingly complied – which is probably what any child would do. 

When she arrived home to Maryland and told us what happened we were outraged and extremely upset that we weren’t there to protect our child.  More concerns are coming to light about these full body scans, specifically with regard to the amount of radiation that they subject an individual to.  Children are very vulnerable to radiation damage because their cells are still rapidly dividing and a radiation-induced mutation in their cells can lead to cancer decades later, the most likely kind being basal cell carcinoma, often occurring on the head and neck.  Whatever damage was done to our daughter cannot be reversed and we will not know the ramifications for years to come.

Also of concern is the fact that this search was with absolutely no probable cause, and is a violation of our child’s fourth amendment rights. Additionally, the manner of the search potentially violates child pornography laws in forcing a child to have an image of her appearing naked in front of adults.  Our 12 year old daughter did not have the intent nor the capability of carrying out any credible threat and thus this full body search was without probable cause.  This procedure is illegal in the UK for children under the age of 18 because of child pornography laws. Additionally, a TSA employee was recently arrested for possession of child pornography. Our concerns are definitely not unfounded.

We have contacted the TSA with our complaint and Michael McElroy, the Administrative Supervisor at Tampa International, has acknowledged that the search was “inappropriate” and they are investigating our complaint. 

The Florida ACLU as well as the ACLU’s national office in New York are involved.