TSA reaches tentative settlement in breastmilk lawsuit

[redheadbaker]

losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/04/22/tsa-settles-breast-milk-lawsuit-agrees-to-clarify-internal-procedures/

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The United States Transportation Security Administration has reached a tentative settlement in the highly publicized lawsuit filed by a mother who was allegedly harassed by TSA officers when she requested her breast milk not be x-rayed, authorities announced Tuesday.

The TSA again apologizes to Stacey Armato for the incident that took place at the Phoenix Airport on Jan. 25, 2010 and also agreed to clarify its internal procedures for screening breast milk in the tentative deal.

“We brought this lawsuit for one reason — to bring clarity and policy change for breastfeeding mothers traveling with breast milk,” Armato said. “Hopefully what I experienced at the Phoenix Airport in 2010 will never happen to another mother traveling with her breast milk.”

TSA is expected to update its public website to better guide breastfeeding mothers traveling with breast milk and train its screening officers on the new policies if the agreement is finalized.

During the 2010 incident, Armato, who travels weekly from Los Angeles to Phoenix for work, claims she was held by the TSA for over 40 minutes while they “researched” their own policy and urged her to simply dump her breast milk if she did not want it to be x-rayed.

She later lodged a complaint through the TSA website, and in response was told to print out a copy of the TSA breast milk guidelines and hand it directly to the screening officers the next time she flew.

The following week, Armato came into contact with the same officers, who refused to look at the guidelines. They then reportedly harassed her for an hour, placed her in a glass enclosure, called the Phoenix police, patted her down and finally refused to screen the milk claiming the bottles were “too full.” She subsequently missed her flight.

“I was sobbing, crying, and thinking desperately for another solution,” Armato, who later posted video from the incident on YouTube, told KCAL9′s Jeff Nguyen.

“My only options were to put it through the x-ray or put it in the trash,” she said.

The sides reached a tentative agreement last Friday.

Attorney Robert Mosier said he took the case after a number of other lawyers turned her down.

“I am so incredibly proud of Stacey Armato,” Mosier said. “To stand up like she did and take on the TSA so breastfeeding mothers would have a voice and be free from harassment took real guts and fortitude. Stacey stood up for what she believed, made the government listen and change its policies — it is a true David vs. Goliath story. It has been a difficult journey for her for well over two years.”

The TSA would not comment on the tentative settlement when contacted by KCAL9.

A spokesperson instead released the following statement: “When carrying breast milk through security checkpoints it is treated in the same manner as liquid medication.”

The government still has 30 days to file for a dismissal of the settlement, which includes $75,000.

Armato says she’ll see very little of the money, which will go towards attorney fees. She also plans to donate a portion to BreastfeedLA, a not-for-profit 501(c)3 corporation dedicated to improving the health and well being of infants and families through education, outreach, and advocacy to promote and support breastfeeding.

[pixy0stix]

It took 4 YEARS to settle this? Fuck the TSA.

[Velar Fricative]

It's ridiculous that passengers need to print out the TSA's own damn rules to show officers at the airport. How about the officers just, you know, become familiar with the rules they are enforcing?

[redheadbaker]

Apr 24, 2014 9:44:49 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

It's ridiculous that passengers need to print out the TSA's own damn rules to show officers at the airport. How about the officers just, you know, become familiar with the rules they are enforcing?

ITA. In what other job would this be tolerated??

[UMaineTeach]

The promise to train the officers holds very little weight with me. The bad TSA officers do what they want and get away with it, training them will not help. Firing them will.

[arch01]

Apr 24, 2014 9:44:49 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

It's ridiculous that passengers need to print out the TSA's own damn rules to show officers at the airport. How about the officers just, you know, become familiar with the rules they are enforcing?

ITA.

I went armed with the TSA regulations regarding liquids for babies and the section about babies being worn each time I flew with DS.

[omgzombies]

I think I remember reading somewhere (May have been a Cracked article) that the turnover for TSA employees is really high, and the training sessions for employees are usually only once every 6 months, so your chances of having an untrained TSA agent are really high.

[msmerymac]

Apr 24, 2014 9:44:49 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

It's ridiculous that passengers need to print out the TSA's own damn rules to show officers at the airport. How about the officers just, you know, become familiar with the rules they are enforcing?

TSA is like the fucking McDonald's of security. Let's pay people $17k/year, hire whoever will work for that little, and throw them in there without paying for training! It will be cheap! Interchangeable cogs in a wheel! I mean, really, what could go wrong? (Oh, I don't know, the fact that we're dealing with security issues and not a mcnugget fryer?)

[LoveTrains]

Apr 24, 2014 9:46:40 GMT -5 redheadbaker said:

Apr 24, 2014 9:44:49 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

It's ridiculous that passengers need to print out the TSA's own damn rules to show officers at the airport. How about the officers just, you know, become familiar with the rules they are enforcing?

ITA. In what other job would this be tolerated??

Amtrak. For real. I know people that print out the amtrak rule book which some crazy rail fans got from a FOIA request. The staff is known to just make shit up.

[pamela]

Apr 24, 2014 9:53:14 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

Apr 24, 2014 9:44:49 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

It's ridiculous that passengers need to print out the TSA's own damn rules to show officers at the airport. How about the officers just, you know, become familiar with the rules they are enforcing?

TSA is like the fucking McDonald's of security. Let's pay people $17k/year, hire whoever will work for that little, and throw them in there without paying for training! It will be cheap! Interchangeable cogs in a wheel! I mean, really, what could go wrong? (Oh, I don't know, the fact that we're dealing with security issues and not a mcnugget fryer?)

Actually McD does training. I had almost a week of training for the 30days I worked there and was set to go for the next round.

[omgzombies]

I posted this in the other TSA thread too, but this is a link to the article I mentioned above. It is indeed Cracked, cause Cracked is my nightly before bedtime reading!

www.cracked.com/blog/7-reasons-tsa-sucks-a-security-experts-perspective/

[wawa]

Apr 24, 2014 21:32:57 GMT -5 pamela said:

Apr 24, 2014 9:53:14 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

TSA is like the fucking McDonald's of security. Let's pay people $17k/year, hire whoever will work for that little, and throw them in there without paying for training! It will be cheap! Interchangeable cogs in a wheel! I mean, really, what could go wrong? (Oh, I don't know, the fact that we're dealing with security issues and not a mcnugget fryer?)

Actually McD does training. I had almost a week of training for the 30days I worked there and was set to go for the next round.

Also a nugget fryer will fuck you up. Plus food safety.

[msmerymac]

Apr 24, 2014 21:32:57 GMT -5 pamela said:

Apr 24, 2014 9:53:14 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

TSA is like the fucking McDonald's of security. Let's pay people $17k/year, hire whoever will work for that little, and throw them in there without paying for training! It will be cheap! Interchangeable cogs in a wheel! I mean, really, what could go wrong? (Oh, I don't know, the fact that we're dealing with security issues and not a mcnugget fryer?)

Actually McD does training. I had almost a week of training for the 30days I worked there and was set to go for the next round.

They do - I've worked in fast food myself. I had 9 days of training/trial period once. But their business model is to spend the least amount of money on training as possible, because of the high employee turn-over rate. If you have a high turn-over rate, it's not worth it to invest time and money in training. But if you don't spend time or money on training, you don't care about your high turn-over rate, and therefore you don't have to work to retain employees by, say, paying them more, giving them set hours, giving them benefits. 

From what I've heard of the TSA, it's similar. They pay people very little (the people who are actually on the floor looking at the nudie scans, rifling through luggage, doing pat downs). They don't care much about turn-over, because their training isn't very intense, or even that difficult. Free thinking and independent thought is not prized - when thinking about things in different ways and a high level of intelligence, rather than rote learning is probably pretty important when it comes to disarming terrorists. 

[meshaliuknits]

Apr 25, 2014 7:57:02 GMT -5 wawa said:

Apr 24, 2014 21:32:57 GMT -5 pamela said:

Actually McD does training. I had almost a week of training for the 30days I worked there and was set to go for the next round.

Also a nugget fryer will fuck you up. Plus food safety.

Does McD's use that mid-evil device to cut tomatoes, too? The one you're supposed to wear chain mail gloves to operate?