Protecting "physical security" comes first, but he notes there's a growing demand on agents to create a "culture of dignity and respect. "Our front-line officers have a very difficult job, period," says Jose Bonilla, executive director of the TSA's Traveler Engagement Division. There are stories of smugglers caught hiding drugs in wheelchairs. One obstacle to better training: the high turnover of TSA agents, who, according to officials from the union that represents them, the American Federation of Government Employees, complain of low pay and lesser workplace protections than other federal agents.Īnd the agents' primary focus is guaranteeing air security. Still, most of the complaints that NPR heard from passengers were the result of agents not following that training. Then, at work, agents and supervisors talk about how to respond to specific situations, including dealing with disability issues. That includes 5 1/2 hours of instruction on screening people with disabilities and medical conditions, according to a TSA official. The TSA extended all training of newly hired TSA agents from two weeks to three weeks. adults has a disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and to understand various disabilities requires comprehensive and repeated training. The act required the TSA to add training for how to handle the different needs of passengers with disabilities. Among them: wheelchairs broken in transit, airport escorts who never show up, children with autism separated from their parents at security gates and pat-downs that felt like sexual assaults.Ĭongress, in the 2018 FAA Reauthorization Act, told the airlines and the TSA to fix air-travel problems like these and demanded more training, better and faster service and taking better care of equipment, such as wheelchairs. We asked people with disabilities to share their experiences at airports almost everyone responded with horror stories. His story and Heather Leiterman's experience are just two of the more than 225 responses NPR received to a social media call-out. ![]() Then, in private, he got a second more intrusive and "humiliating" pat-down "in all areas" of his body. Ross was then subjected to a pat-down "of the two open holes in my chest and stomach" - in front of other passengers. Then, instead of putting each bag back into the cooling bag, the agent on one trip left them out, and Ross says when he and his mother asked the agent to please put them back, she refused and "we were scolded," Ross says. The bags of liquid - which need to be kept sterile and at a controlled temperature in a special container with ice packs - were X-rayed, opened and given an extended examination, he says. In 2019, when he was 18, he made multiple trips to and from Arizona and an Ohio children's hospital for treatment. Ross says the devices and the intravenous fluids he travels with often confuse agents. Ross explains that he has "several physical disabilities" that require him to have implanted medical devices, including a feeding tube in his stomach and an intravenous line inserted under his chest wall. "Not about making my flight or finding my gate, but for my inevitable interaction with the TSA that will leave me feeling dehumanized and criminalized because of my disability." "Stepping into an airport, I feel a sense of anxiety wash over me," says college student Nathaniel Ross. ![]() "He said, 'If the officer told you, you need to take this off your dog, you needed to take it off your dog.'" When she called the TSA customer service line the next day, she says, the officer on the phone refused to take her complaint. When she was at an airport, an agent with the Transportation Security Administration insisted she take off the dog's leash, harness and collar, even though that would mean she would lose control of the service animal. Heather Leiterman walks with her guide dog.
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