TSA Screener Forces Four Year Old, Ryan Thomas, to Remove Leg Braces at Security Checkpoint

TSA screener forces developmentally delayed four year old Ryan Thomas to remove leg braces at security checkpoint as they headed for vacation in Orlando.

The Transportation Security Administration has sunk to a new low. According to Philadelphia Inquirer's columnist Daniel Rubin, Camden police officer Bob Thomas, his wife Leona and their four-year old son Ryan were traveling to Walt Disney World when the unthinkable occurred. You see, Ryan is developmentally delayed, having been born 16 weeks premature. Rubin goes on to say that his ankles are malformed and his legs have low muscle tone and he had just begun walking in March. The boy walked through the metal detector and the alarm went off. That's when all hell broke loose. The screener told them to take off the boy's braces. I am at a loss for seeing the logic in demanding that the parents remove the braces. Wow, was Ryan a four year old terrorist?

The boy should have never been told to remove his braces. That is just common sense. According to TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis in an interview with the Inquirer, TSA policy should have allowed the parents to help the boy to a private screening area where he could have been swabbed for traces of explosive materials. So, Farouk Abdulmutallab goes through two security check points to board a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives and he wasn't stopped, but this kid with braces gets ordered to remove them.

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