TSA: We'll Change Rules About Nipple Rings
Agency Stops Short Of Apologizing After Airport Screeners Force Woman To Remove Piercings
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Mandi Hamlin, right, who claims a Transportation Security Administration agent forced her to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane demonstrates what she was asked to do by the TSA during a news conference, March 27, 2008, in Los Angeles, as her attorney Gloria Allred looks on. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
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Mandi Hamlin, 37, had demanded an apology and her Los Angeles-based attorney sent a letter to the TSA this week requesting a civil rights investigation.
Hamlin said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a TSA agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems.
The female TSA agent used a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of Hamlin's chest, the Dallas-area resident said.
Hamlin said she told the woman she was wearing nipple piercings. The agent then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the jewelry, Hamlin said.
Hamlin said she could not remove them and asked whether she could instead display her pierced breasts in private to the female agent. But several other male officers told her she could not board her flight until the jewelry was out, she said.
Hamlin was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped piercing but had trouble with the second, a ring. She said the officer gave her pliers to remove the ring, a process which caused a lot of physical pain.
The TSA said in a statement on its Web site that the officers properly followed procedures, but that the procedures must change. In the future passengers can either allow a visual inspection of their piercings, or remove them, the agency said.
The statement stopped short of apologizing to Hamlin.
"TSA acknowledges that our procedures caused difficulty for the passenger involved and regrets the situation in which she found herself," the agency said in a statement. "We appreciate her raising awareness on this issue and we are changing the procedures to ensure that this does not happen again."
Hamlin's attorney said she accepted the TSA statement as an apology, and commended the agency for taking quick action.
The policy change is "an achievement for the protection of passengers' civil rights while meeting the security goals of the TSA," Allred said.
And what does Hamlin think?
"She says it's awesome," the attorney said.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 42 CommentsPosted by AntiZion at 11:15 PM : Mar 29, 2008
hahaha no it will not heat up. Please think or do some research before you try to make conversation.
We are becoming nothing but a "Lookit-Me, Lookit-Me" society.
Jerry Springer''s job is secure.
Those nipple rings could be pull-pins for squishy plastic explosive implants!!!
I think the new TSA policy should be that agents must give each ring a good yank to ensure they''re safe for the flying public.
I don''t think I wait for the tickets or passport...
Does anyone know how I can get deported?
AHHHHHHHHHH get me out of US and A!!!!!!
I%u2019d bet that if you were able to read the rules that TSA workers labor under you%u2019d find quite a few %u201Cor else%u201D rules and these will wipe out most of the common sense abilities afforded most of us, because rules are created for the dumbest of us. Yes, rules like this one needs to be reviewed and modified.
What I cannot abide by is the callousness of the male TSA screener to snicker about this within her hearing (this was in another news story). I have worked in retail for a decade, and I know that some things customers come up with are%u2026..entertaining. That doesn%u2019t mean you belittle them. Also, come on, pliers to work on a body? Now that%u2019s real sterile.
It doesn''t matter about infections; nothing matters at all....this woman has every right to wear whatever, even if she had a nipple ring that ended up wrapping around her head-it''s her CHOICE SEE? I fail to understand why anyone has an opinion of how a another person ''should'' live. We all have choices. Who cares if you don''t like it? Butt out control freaks!
Real power is measured by the number of able bodied persons willing to fight. This woman made herself count.
Do YOU count?
The next time you go into the hospital maybe they can give you a brain transplant while you are there.
I''ll get the popcorn, you get the soda...
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