TSA Agents Demand To Search Woman's Afro
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - A Dallas woman claims she was humiliated at an airport when TSA agents patted down her hair.
Isis Brantley was headed down an escalator at Hartsfield-Jackson International airport in Atlanta, after she was screened a the initial security checkpoint, when she says two TSA agents came after her asking to check her hair for explosives.
Brantley says the agents began patting down her large afro in public as she waited on a train platform.
She claims she was so embarrassed and couldn't understand why they checked her again after her initial security screening. Brantley says she couldn't believe it was happening to her. She says she wouldn't have minded if the TSA did the hair pat-down at the security checkpoint. It was the public display that upset her.
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After it was over Brantley complained to a TSA supervisor who then apologized. The TSA issued a statement saying "Additional screening may be required for clothing, headware or hair where prohibited items could be hidden. This passenger left the checkpoint prior to the completeion of the screening process."
The TSA also claims that the agent offered to take Brantley into a private area, but she says that's not true.
Brantley is a hairdresser in DFW and says this has never happened to her in the 20 years she's been wearing her hair in this natural way.