Triggering Trauma with TSA Scans & Pat Downs Angela Shelton | Writer/Actor/Filmmaker

Triggering Trauma with TSA Scans & Pat Downs by Angela Shelton | Writer/Actor/Filmmaker

Triggering Trauma with TSA Scans & Pat Downs

by ANGELA SHELTON

Wow, there is a lot of public outrage over being scanned and patted down. Is the new TSA policy really going to help with target recognition or will it trigger trauma?

Michael Tarm from The Associated Press writes: The full-body scanners show a traveler’s physical contours on a computer in a private room removed from security checkpoints. But critics say they amount to virtual strip searches.

According to a USA Today/Gallup poll, most people are okay with the new screening process.

“To use these scanners, I would feel rather violated,” said poll respondent Malena Jackson, 35, of Denver. She worries that the images would be saved.

I’d like to know if they’re safe. What’s the radiation level? What if you’re pregnant?

Passengers can opt to be patted down by a screener instead of going through a scanner. Only 22% of poll respondents said they prefer a pat-down to a scan. “In a pat-down, I do feel like you’re invading my physical space,” said Dennis Skiles, 62, of Livonia, Mich.

Comedian John Fugelsang tweeted: Being felt up by a TSA employee is the closest most Americans will ever come to joining the Mile High Club.

Perhaps the full body scans will inspire diets. Maybe some lonely hearts will travel more, just for the attention.

Humor aside, from what I know about trauma, there are hordes of people who are going to be highly triggered by having to go through a scanner or a pat down.

We’re now in a whole new era of crime so protection screenings need to come up a notch, but at what price and how can they be most affective? Seems to me if you have over 39 million survivors of sexual abuse in America, most of them remaining silent and not seeking healing, there are bound to be a lot of trauma triggers while “patted down or screened?” The chaos created by flashbacks or panic attacks is a great distraction for actual criminals to slip by undetected. I may seem a little too slanted on the survivors, there she goes talking about trauma again, but if you knew just how many people were affected by sexual and domestic abuse, you may think twice about scanning them and certainly patting them down. Murray Sabrin even compares the new policies to Nazism in his commentary.

Cynics may suggest if you’re triggered, stay home. But this is America, we all have the right to travel.

I travel a lot and have been through many airports domestically and internationally so I’ve been through all sorts of security lines. Some pat downs do not make sense to me honestly, it seems like the same goal could be accomplished without physical contact. What happened to that wand thingy they moved around you, beeping if it discovered a pistol?

A MSNBC article states: Some travelers have criticized the pat-downs and full-body scanners at some airports as overly intrusive and humiliating. In one case, a woman who survived breast cancer said she was forced to show her prosthetic breast during a pat-down at an airport in North Carolina.

Some would ask if you’d rather be a victim of another terrorist attack or go through an intrusive screening process? I believe there must be a happy medium in there somewhere. I personally do not understand some security measures. For example, does it really help our safety for there to be a deal with Zip-lock baggies? Some of the security measures seem more like something Gomer Pyle would come up with. Now that safety seems to be more sophisticated moving from Zip-locks to body scanners, I wonder how affect if will actually be.

I personally think people should travel more to expand their minds, hearts and spirits, but if these scanners and pat downs continue, TSA may need to add therapists to their staff.

Here are the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) mission, vision and core values:

Mission

The Transportation Security Administration protects the Nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce.

Vision

The Transportation Security Administration will continuously set the standard for excellence in transportation security through its people, processes, and technology.

Core Values

To enhance mission performance and achieve our shared goals, we are committed to promoting a culture founded on these values:

* Integrity:

o We are a people of integrity who respect and care for others and protect the information we handle.
o We are a people who conduct ourselves in an honest, trustworthy and ethical manner at all times.
o We are a people who gain strength from the diversity in our cultures.

* Innovation:

o We are a people who embrace and stand ready for change.
o We are a people who are courageous and willing to take on new challenges.
o We are a people with an enterprising spirit, striving for innovations who accept the risk-taking that comes with it.

* Team Spirit:

o We are a people who are open, respectful and dedicated to making others better.
o We are a people who have a passion for challenge, success and being on a winning team.
o We are a people who will build teams around our strengths.

Wow, I think TSA may be slipping away from their original vision. I was disturbed to read this in an article by David Edwards:

“Do the imagers, for example, detect sanitary napkins?” women wanted to know.

“Yes.”

“Does that then necessitate a pat-down?

The T.S.A. couldn’t say. Screeners, the T.S.A. has said, “are expected to exercise some discretion.”

“And what about tampons?” asked the blog Feminist Peace Network. “They look kind of like sticks of dynamite. Are they going to ask us to pull them out and show them just to be sure?”

Ewww..