TSA Takes on a Toddler in a Wheelchair

Caroline Morse Teel is the Managing Editor for SmarterTravel Media. Follow her on Instagram @TravelWithCaroline.

Caroline joined Boston-based SmarterTravel in 2011 after living in Ireland, London, and Manhattan. She's traveled to all seven continents, jumped out of planes, and bungeed off bridges in the pursuit of a good story. She loves exploring off-the-beaten path destinations, anything outdoorsy, and all things adventure.

Her stories have also appeared online at USA Today, Business Insider, Huffington Post, Yahoo, Boston.com, TripAdvisor, Buzzfeed, Jetsetter, Oyster, Airfarewatchdog, and others.

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Days after the TSA vowed to “move away from the one-size-fits-all approach” and test less-invasive screening for the elderly, a video hit the Internet of a three-year-old boy in a body cast and wheelchair being given a very intense screening at the airport.

Today.com reports that the boy and his family were stopped by a TSA officer at Chicago’s O’Hare airport and given a pat-down while in his wheelchair. The TSA officer also allegedly requested that the parents lift the boy’s T-shirt so that he could swab the child’s back (along with his cast and wheelchair), and that the parents were not allowed to come near the child during the rest of the screening.

According to the YouTube video, the pat-down happened in the spring of 2010 at a Chicago-area airport, and the boy was traveling to a Disney vacation.

Watch the video, which was uploaded to YouTube on March 17, to see the incident. Do you think the TSA went too far?

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