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Last June, the daughter of a 95-year-old woman said TSA agents wouldn't let her mother board a flight from Fort Walton Beach, Fla., to Detroit because her wet adult diaper set off alarms. A TSA screener said Lena Reppert had a suspicious spot on her adult diaper, according to her daughter, Jean Weber. Weber ultimately took off the wet diaper so Reppert could be cleared in time for their flight. The TSA said its inspectors handled the situation correctly and didn't ask Reppert to remove her diaper. Such cases raise serious privacy questions, said Chris Calabrese, a legislative expert with the American Civil Liberties Union. "It's a pretty fundamental invasion of privacy when you have to take your clothes off," Calabrese said. Even lawmakers have complained about their treatment. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who has an artificial knee, told fellow members of a congressional committee that she dreads running into a certain TSA agent when it comes time for a pat-down at the St. Louis airport. "I see her coming ... I like, you know, just tense up, because I know it's going to be ugly in terms of the way she conducts her pat-downs," McCaskill said.
The TSA says it has been trying to tailor its screening procedures for different types of passengers. In September it eliminated pat-downs for most children under 12 because of complaints from parents. In October it began testing an express screening program for frequent fliers at four airports. The agency has formed an advisory committee of 70 disability groups to help adapt its screening techniques. TSA chief John Pistole has said the agency is trying to train screeners to more quickly identify medical devices, such as catheters, to save passengers from embarrassment. He also said the agency might give preference to senior citizens going through the screening lines. "We are looking at ways that we can recognize those of a certain age ... I don't want terrorists to game the system
-- but of a certain age that would be given an expedited screening," Pistole told a Senate committee last month.
[Associated
Press;
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